In November 2023, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) achieved a remarkable feat, recording 11.24 billion transactions worth ₹17.40 lakh crore. This marked a 1.4% increase in the value of transactions from October’s ₹17.16 lakh crore, indicating consistent growth in the digital payments landscape in India. However, there was a slight dip of 1.5% in the number of transactions compared to the previous month’s 1,141 crore.
The overall growth of UPI has been significant, with a year-on-year increase of 46% in transaction value and 54% in transaction volume. During the fiscal year 2024 (FY24) thus far, UPI’s transaction value has grown by over 40%, while the volume has consistently increased by over 50%. In FY23, UPI processed 8,376 crore transactions totaling ₹139 lakh crore, a substantial rise from FY22’s 4,597 crore transactions worth ₹84 lakh crore.
The surge in UPI transactions is attributed to factors such as a shift in consumer behavior towards digital payments, the introduction of convenient features like Credit on UPI, Tap & Pay, and increased merchant adoption of digital payment methods. The rise of Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions, which grew to 57.5% of total UPI transactions in June 2023 from 40.3% in January 2022, also contributes significantly to this growth.
Looking forward, UPI transactions are expected to continue their upward trend. Some experts predict that UPI transactions might surpass the 2,000 crore mark within the next 18-24 months. Furthermore, a report by PwC India suggests that UPI could dominate the retail digital payments landscape, accounting for 90% of total transaction volumes over the next five years and potentially reaching 100 crore transactions per day by FY27.