Unified Payment Interface (UPI) saw an increase of 23.5% in the total transaction volumes between April and May 2020, according to data published by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). For the same period, the amount transacted went up by 44.5%. NPCI is a private company owned by Indian banks, it owns and operates important payments systems such as UPI and IMPS. The total number of transactions in May 2020 was around 1.68 times higher than in the same month last year. The total amount transacted during the month stood at Rs 2,18,392 crore, up 1.43 times year-on-year. The steep increases follow a major slump in both metrics in April, which was likely due to a nationwide lockdown that was imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Some observations 1. The number of transactions and amount transacted we both up compared to April, but not yet back to pre-lockdown levels. 2. The number of transactions increased by 234.9 million in May, whereas the total amount transacted went up by Rs 67,251 crores. In the previous month (April 2020), volume had decreased by 247.3 million and the amount transacted had declined by Rs 55,321.7 crores, likely due to a pause in most economic activity due to the Covid-lockdown. 3. The average amount per transaction increased to Rs 1,769 for May 2020. The average had been trending up since November 2019 but saw dips in March and April. 4. The number of banks on UPI increased to 155 in May 2020.
