The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) saw an increase of 18.6% in the total transaction volumes taking place between February 2019 and March 2019, according to data published by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The NPCI is a private company owned by Indian banks, and owns and operates payments systems such as UPI and IMPS.
The total number of transactions in March 2019 was around 4.5 times higher than in the same month last year. The amount transacted went up by 25% to Rs 133,460.7 crores over February. The amount transacted in March 2019 was 5.5 times higher than in March 2018.
Some observations:
1. UPI transactions have been growing since launch except in May and July 2018. Growth has typically been driven by new launches and cashbacks: The growth from October 2018 till March 2019 can’t be attributed to any particular service launch.
2. The number of transactions grew by 125.4 million in March whereas the total amount transacted increased by Rs 26,723.6 crores. In February 2019, volume had increased by 1.4 million and the amount transacted had declined by Rs 3,195 crores, but there was still growth on a per day basis. February has only 28 days, except in leap years, where it has 29.
3. The average amount per transaction grew to Rs 1,669 for March 2019 with an increase in the amount transacted. It has been mostly flat since October 2018. The average amount per transaction has remained above the Rs 1,000 mark for the last 11 months.
4. The number of banks on UPI jumped to 142 in March 2019.
