UPI transactions suffer sustained decline from March high

Payments made via unified payments interface (UPI) declined in May at 733.54 million transactions across platforms, lower than the April numbers of 781.79 million transactions, data from the National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) showed.

This was a sustained decline, post an all-time high of 799.54 million transactions clocked in March. The number of banks on UPI in May also fell to 143 compared to April's 144.

On a positive note, the amount transacted grew incrementally from 133,460.72 crore in March to Rs 142,034.39 crore in April and Rs 152,499.29 crore in May, it added.

Developed by RBI-regulated NPCI, UPI is built over the IMPS infrastructure and allows one to instantly transfer money between any two parties' bank accounts at any time and any date.

Launched in April 2016, transaction volume and worth grew exponentially after the demonetisation drive in November 2016 and were on an upward trend since, more than doubling each progressive month. However, after an all-time high in March, the numbers saw consecutive slips.