UPI transactions dip in November post October's festive rush

Representative image

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transactions dipped by 0.71 percent in November after clocking record high transactions in October led by the upbeat sentiment during festivals and e-commerce sales.

In November, UPI recorded 418 crore transactions, down from 421 crore in October.  Transaction values too dipped by a marginal 0.4 percent to Rs 7.68 lakh crore as compared to Rs. 7.71 lakh crore in the previous month.

This breaks UPI's five-month streak of consistent month-on-month growth. The last dip was seen in the month of May 2021 amid the second wave of Covid-19.

Despite the dip, the month's transaction values at Rs 7.68 lakh crore continue to be higher than the record $100 billion mark which the payments system crossed for the first time last month.

Post-May, UPI transaction values crossed new milestones every month breaking the Rs 6 lakh crore mark in July and the Rs 7 lakh crore mark in October.

However, digital transactions in India across payment modes continue on an upward trajectory. News18 reported that digital transactions are expected to touch volumes of 7,000 crore in FY21, breaking the record of 4573 crore in FY20.

In November, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) also increased the cap for Meta (previously Facebook) owned WhatsApp to allow 40 million users on its UPI platform, up from 20 million earlier. Moneycontrol was the first to report that NPCI will hike the cap in a phased manner.

The app-wise data for both November and December will be important to watch out for how this has changed WhatsApp's share in overall UPI payments.

Speaking on the increase in user base, Manesh Mahatme, Director-Payments at WhatsApp India said, "Over the next 6 months, we have planned significant investments in payments on WhatsApp across India including many more India-first features that we are sure will accelerate our growth."

PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm Payments Bank are the leaders in UPI with a share of 45 percent, 37 percent and 10 percent respectively in monthly transaction values.