Digital Transactions Cross $2 Trillion Mark; Wallets Beat UPI In Growth, Debit Card Still #1 Option!

Reserve Bank of India has released the data for digital transactions for January 2018 and going by the looks of it, it seems that Digital India is on to a solid start this year.

Both in terms of volume and value, digital transactions (which include UPI, Wallets, Debit/Credit cards) witnessed an all-time high, never seen before.

In an interesting development, it was seen that UPI has finally reduced its speed of growth, as mobile wallets overtook them with an increase in transactions.

Overall, debit cards are still #1 choice for performing any digital transaction in India.

$2 Trillion Worth Of Digital Transactions in January!

As per RBI’s data, the number of digital transactions increased by 4.73% in January, compared to December, to reach 1.11 billion.

This is an all-time high for the total number of transactions done digitally.

1.11 billion transactions amounted to Rs 131.95 trillion value, which is almost $2 trillion.

The value isn’t highest so far, as, in March, it had touched the Rs 149.59 trillion mark, which is the highest till date.

The data of digital transactions consists of credit and debit cards, the unified payments interface (UPI), unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) and internet banking.

Mobile Wallets Beat UPI In January

Meanwhile, the incredible pace of Unified Payment Interface or UPI finally subsided in the month of January, as mobile wallets took up the pace, and beat them in terms of growth.

For January, the number of transactions on mobile wallets grew by 14%, compared to 4.2% growth shown by UPI.

A total of 151.7 million transactions were done by UPI, up around 4% from 145.5 million in the month of December. The value of transactions done via UPI touched Rs 155.4 billion in January from Rs 131.4 billion in December.

BHIM’s market share also increased, as out of total UPI transactions, BHIM accounted for 9.57 million transactions, amounting to Rs 3.65 billion.

On the other hand, PPIs or mobile wallets touched 113.6 million transactions in the month of January, up from 99 million a month earlier. Clearly, UPI has more volume and value, compared to wallets, but the growth has slowed.

But, debit cards are still #1 choice for digital payments in India. In January, a total of 267.7 million transactions were done using debit cards, against 263.9 million in the month of December.

Govt. had removed MDR from all debit card transactions till Rs 2000 in the month of December, and this is seen as a major reason for the jump in the number of transactions made via debit cards.

What is your preferred method of digital transactions? UPI, wallers or debit cards?

Do share your opinions by commenting right here!