Another record month for UPI, transactions cross Rs 10 lakh crore milestone in May

UPI transaction values breached the $1 trillion mark in FY22.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions continue to break records, with values for May crossing the Rs 10-lakh-crore mark for the first time, the latest data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shows.

The instant real-time payments system registered 595 crore transactions in the month, up from 558 crore in April.

Since its inception in 2016, UPI has seen widespread acceptance, spurred by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the number of transactions stood at 124 crore amounting to Rs 2.06 lakh crore.

As compared to May 2021, the number of monthly transactions jumped by 117 percent and the values of the transactions doubled from Rs 5 lakh crore in the previous year, data released on June 1 shows.

In the financial year 2021-22, UPI breached the $1-trillion mark in transaction values, a watershed moment for the indigenous payments system.

NPCI, the umbrella entity that handles UPI, RuPay, Bharat Bill Pay, etc, is aiming for UPI transactions worth $1 billion a day over the next two or three years.

NPCI has two key tasks—enabling UPI on feature phones and in offline mode for smartphones. UPI 123Pay for feature phones is being tested, while NPCI has issued a circular on how UPI Lite will work in offline mode.

UPI transactions are dominated by three key players enjoying a majority share of the market—PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm Payments Bank.

PhonePe has a market share of 47 percent in monthly transactions, while Google Pay and Paytm Payments Bank have a share of around 35 and 15 percent, respectively.

After Paytm Payments Bank was directed to stop onboarding new customers by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in March this year, the bank is now pushing to grow the usage of UPI on its app.