UPI is India’s favourite payment mode with transactions worth ₹30.4 trillion in April-June, says report

• The top UPI apps in terms of volume were PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.
  
• The number of transactions through mobile wallets was 1.52 billion in Q2 2022.
  
• The total number of credit and debit cards in circulation reach one billion.
  
• Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala recorded the highest transactions at physical merchant stores.
  

UPI is India’s most preferred online payment platform clocking over 17.4 billion transactions in volume and ₹30.4 trillion in terms of value in April-June 2022, according to the ‘India Digital Payments Report’ for Q2 2022 by Worldline India, a global digital payments solution company.

In Q2, 20.57 billion transactions in volume and ₹36.08 trillion in terms of value was processed through debit and credit cards, prepaid payment instruments like mobile wallets and prepaid cards, and UPI which includes P2M (person to merchant) and P2P (person to person) transactions, the report said.

Payments through credit and debit cards accounted for 8% in volume and 14% in value, the report added.

“2022 is another momentous year for the payments space in India. We are successfully sailing through the aftermath of Covid-19, the total cards in circulation has breached 1 billion mark, UPI is tracking over 6 billion transactions per month, about 53 million FASTags have been issued, and over 20,000 billers are live on Bharat BillPay ecosystem,” Ramesh Narasimhan, chief executive officer-India, Worldline, said.

The top five states that recorded the highest transactions at physical merchant stores were Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The top five cities were Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune.

How does India pay?

UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions volume and value have seen an increase of about 118% and over 98% respectively in Q2 2022 as compared to the same quarter last year. The top UPI apps in terms of volume were PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.

“What could be a game-changer for UPI transactions will be linking credit cards onto the platform – it is currently only Rupay but could increase going forward – and this could further supercharge UPI transactions, especially in terms of P2M average ticket sizes,” Worldline said.

The average ticket size (ATS) for UPI P2P transactions was ₹2,425 and for UPI P2M transactions it was ₹820 as of June 2022, the report said.

The top remitter banks during the quarter were SBI, HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank and ICICI Bank. The top beneficiary banks were Paytm Payments Bank, Yes Bank, SBI, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank.

The transaction volume passing through Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU) during the quarter stood at 238.31 million while the transaction value was ₹403.02 billion. It registered a growth rate of 99% and 108% in volume and value respectively as compared with Q2 2021.

The total number of credit and debit cards in circulation reach 1 billion

Alongside UPI, adoption of credit cards is growing at a healthy pace, revealed Worldline.

The total number of credit and debit cards in circulation has reached 1 billion in Q2 2022 especially with festivities around the corner.

“While the number of credit cards increased by 25% from ₹62.81 million in June 2021 to 78.7 million in June 2022, debit cards increased by 2% from ₹906 million to ₹921.75 million during the same period,” Worldline said.

As of June 2022, the top credit-card issuing banks were HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and RBL Bank while the top debit-card issuing banks were SBI, BOB, Union Bank, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank.

Credit cards volume and value stood at 688.65 million and ₹3.28 trillion respectively.

“Even though credit card volume at POS and e-commerce are nearly equal, the value of e-commerce transactions is higher as compared with the value of transactions at POS. This is in line with the general trend of transactions of high-ticket items moving from the physical to the digital space,” Worldline said.

In terms of value, consumers transacted ₹1,226.29 billion at POS terminals and ₹2,053.66 billion at e-commerce through credit cards in the second quarter.

In Q2 2022, debit card transactions volume and value stood at 973.12 million and ₹1.91 trillion respectively. Prepaid cards transaction volume and value was 412.29 million and ₹206.36 billion respectively.

When it comes to mobile payments, the number of transactions through mobile wallets was 1.52 billion and the value was ₹574.64 billion. Transactions through wallets are growing steadily recording a 38% increase in volume and 27% in value when compared to Q2 2021, revealed Worldline data.

National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) processed about 829 million transactions worth ₹129 billion. As of March 2022, about 52.9 million NETC FASTags have been issued since the inception of the NETC program.

Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Service transactions recorded a substantial volume of over 679 million transactions, registering about 38% growth over Q2 2021.

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