November saw UPI transactions surpassing 11 billion for two months consecutively, with a slight uptick in value. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) figures reveal that the UPI transactions in November were marginally lower than October’s figure of 1,141 Cr rupees, but they marked an increase of 54% in comparison to 730.95 Cr rupees recorded in November 2022. Transactions for November 2023 reached a total worth of 17.40 lakh Cr rupees, a slight increase from the 17.16 lakh Cr rupees reported in October. In comparison to the preceding month’s volume of 11.90 lakh Cr rupees, the transaction volume experienced a year-on-year increase of 46%.
The second month in succession saw the volume of UPI transactions exceeding the 17 lakh crore INR mark. Transaction volumes exceeded 15 lakh crore INR in the months of July, August, and September. For the first time, UPI surpassed 10 billion transactions in August, maintaining this level ever since. In October, digital payments platform PhonePe accomplished a new milestone, recording 5.33 billion transactions. This marks the first instance of PhonePe surpassing 5 billion transactions through UPI in October. Detailed statistics for November are yet to be released by NPCI, but the UPI ecosystem continues to dominate the October 2023 landscape, with Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe maintaining their leading positions.
These three UPI applications collectively account for more than 90% of transactions on the payment network. The NPCI has set a goal of achieving 100 billion monthly transactions by the end of 2022. NPCI has recently urged banks and payment apps to deactivate any UPI ID numbers that have been inactive for the past year by year-end. NPCI maintains that to ensure a secure and safe transactional experience, customers must regularly review and validate their data within the banking system.
As per an Entrackr report from last month, UPI was responsible for nearly 47% of the total transaction volume in November. Google Pay was the second-largest contributor with a total of Rs 5.13 billion transactions in November, followed by Paytm with Rs 1.41 trillion transactions. The detailed breakdown for November is yet to be released. UPI expanded its operations to France earlier this year and has plans to establish offices in Sri Lanka, the UAE, Bhutan, Nepal, and Singapore. Recently, NPCI has instructed third-party UPI apps like Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe to deactivate any UPI IDs or numbers dormant for more than a year. NPCI has also increased the market cap limit to 30% for these third-party UPI players for the two years ending on 31 December 2024.
