India's digital payments almost double in a year, touch Rs 38.2 lakh crore

Digital payments in India reach Rs 38.3 lakh crore at over 23 billion transactions in the third quarter this year

New Delhi, Dec 06: With the volume as well as value of UPI transactions in India almost doubling in one year, India's digital payment logged 23.06 billion transactions amounting to Rs 38.3 lakh crore in the third quarter of this year. Digital payments include Unified Payments Interface (UPI), debit and credit cards, prepaid payment instruments like mobile wallets, and prepaid cards.

UPI processed worth a total of Rs 32.5 lakh crore

At its peak, the UPI processed approximately 19.65 billion transactions in volume, worth a total of Rs 32.5 lakh crore, as per a Business Insider report quoting IANS.

The volume and value of UPI transactions nearly doubled since last year, with an 88% increase in volume and a 71% increase in value in Q3 compared to the same period last year, according to Worldline India's 'Digital Payments Report' for the third quarter.

PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm Payments Bank App were the top three UPI apps in terms of volume and value. State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, and ICICI Bank were the top five remitter banks, while Paytm Payments Bank, YES Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank were the top five beneficiaries banks.

The most chosen payment method was UPI person-to-merchant (P2M) and person-to-person (P2P) among consumers, accounting for 42 per cent of total transaction volume.

Credit and debit card payments followed the UPI payments, which accounted for 7 per cent of volume and 14 per cent of value.

Ramesh Narasimhan, CEO, India, Worldline, said, "The swift adoption of digital payments can be witnessed with each passing quarter. Popular payment instruments like UPI, cards, and PPIs are already clocking over 23 billion transactions in a quarter," IANS quoted in its reports.

The report also stated healthy usage of credit cards and growth in the average ticket size.

For credit cards, it is Rs 4,833; for debit cards, it is Rs 2,073; for UPI P2M, it is Rs 738; for UPI, P2P it is 2,576; for prepaid cards, it is 473; and for M-wallet, it is Rs 382, according to the reports.

Credit cards and debit cards:

Credit cards and debit cards account for around 65 per cent of total transactions, with the remaining 35 per cent divided across UPI P2P, UPI P2M, and prepaid cards, the report showed.

The overall number of POS terminals installed by merchant-acquiring banks had surpassed 7 million as of September 2022.

When compared to the same quarter last year, POS deployment climbed by more than 41% in Q3 2022, hitting 7.03 million.

E-commerce (shopping for goods and services), gaming, utility, and financial services accounted for more than 86% of online transactions in terms of volume and 47% in terms of value.

There were 1.01 billion credit and debit cards in circulation by the end of the third quarter. Credit card volume and value were 725 million and Rs 3.5 lakh crore in Q3 2022, respectively.

The report also said that the volume and value of debit card transactions were 907 million and Rs 1.88 lakh crore in the third quarter of 2022. Till September, at least 58.78 million FASTags had been issued by 36 banks.