Volume And Value Of UPI Transactions Hit New Highs In December

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transactions beat another monthly record in terms of the number of transactions (volume) and for the transacted amount (value).

In December, UPI volumes reached 2,234.16 million, and the value of transactions touched Rs 4,16,176 crore, new all-time records respectively, as per data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which owns and operates the UPI.

It has breached the 2-billion mark for the third straight month in December.

In November, UPI had recorded 2.21 billion transactions worth Rs 3.9 trillion and worth Rs 3.86 trillion in October.

Transactions had taken a hit in April due to COVID-19 but recovered in May. From July onwards, it has been recording new highs month-on-month. The number of transactions fell to 999.57 million in April.

With effect from 1 January, NPCI has imposed 30% cap on third-party apps on total volume transactions processed via UPI, stifling competition in the UPI space. However, the existing third-party app providers processing over 30% transactions will have a period of two years from January 2021, to comply with the same in a phased manner.

Consequently, Google Pay and PhonePe will have to comply with the NPCI's new rules and bring down the share in UPI transactions to below 30% in the next two years.

In December, Walmart-backed Phone Pe emerged as the top UPI app with 902.03 million transactions accounting for Rs 1.82 trillion, followed by Google Pay with 854.49 million transactions worth Rs 1.76 trillion, as per NPCI's data. The two players account for 78% of the UPI market in terms of volume of transaction, and 86% of the market by value of transactions in December.