UPI adds another billion transactions to reach 11-billion mark in two months: RBI Bulletin

UPI

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) added another billion transactions to reach the 11 billion mark in a short span of two months, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its monthly bulletin.

"The Initial Public Offering (IPO) facility through UPI exhibited robust adoption with the number of mandates nearly doubling in October 2023 over the corresponding month in 2022," said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its monthly bulletin.

RBI bulletin further added that the credit cards continued their ascent, supported by cash backs, reward points, contactless cards and UPI-linked credit cards.

On September 5, NPCI chief Dilip Asbe said, "We should have a couple of billion transactions a day in payments. On the credit side, we should see at least - with the fintechs getting involved - I think 10x growth on the users on the credit side, and it is not very ambitious. And at least 50 percent of the top 30 markets or countries, will have pipes with UPI for cross-border transactions."
On November 7 2016, the Government of India announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes as a step to curb black money in the economy. This was then followed by the introduction of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) which has transformed payment of products and services in India.
UPI has become ingrained in urban daily life, representing more than 78 percent of total retail digital payments in India as of May 2023. Last month, UPI crossed a whopping 11.4 billion (1,140 crore) transactions, setting a new record with transaction value surpassing Rs 17.6 lakh crore.
Similarly, the recently launched Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) also has the potential to transform digital transactions.