The transaction value on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) stood at Rs 8.27 lakh crores in December 2021, up by 1.9x compared to the same month in the previous year, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI). Overall, transaction volumes increased by 2 times over the last year to 4.56 billion in December. While UPI payment volumes grew by 8.9% in December 2021 over the previous month, the UPI transaction value went up by 7.6% compared to November 2021.
This steady increase comes after a drastic slump in both metrics in April last year, given several state-imposed lockdowns due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key observations
1. Increase over November: The number of transactions increased by 373.5 million as compared to last month, whereas the total amount transacted went up by Rs 58,412 crores. In the previous month (November 2021), the volume of transactions had decreased by 32.2 million and the amount transacted declined by Rs 3,009 crores.
2. Average transactions per day: Around 147.1 million transactions were completed and Rs 26,672 crores were transacted on an average per day in December. The average number of transactions per day in December 2021 was the highest till date.
3. Size of transaction: The average amount exchanged per transaction decreased marginally over the previous month to Rs 1,813. The average amount per transaction fell to its lowest in the past year in September 2021, to Rs 1,791.
4. Banks on UPI service: 13 more banks onboarded UPI payments in November 2021, which brings the total to 274 banks. The nationwide lockdown due to the pandemic began at the end of March 2020 and lasted till mid-May after which relaxations have gradually come into place. It’s possible that more banks began UPI payments due to unprecedented immobility, along with a need to limit human contact, which meant a natural move to digital payments.
Also read:
- RBI Working On Reducing Transaction Fees, UPI For Feature Phones: Governor Shaktikanta Das
- Two Out Of Three ICICI Bank Customers Are Mobile First, Analysts Report
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