UPI payments: Electronic transactions made up 95.4% of retail payments in 2018-19, RBI data shows

UPI or Unified Payments Interface transactions surged nearly six times in the year to June 30, according to the Reserve Bank of India's annual report. The spike in UPI transactions comes amid "robust growth" in payments and settlements systems, clocking a jump of 54.3 per cent in transaction volumes in 2018-19, the central bank - which follows a financial year from July to June - said in its annual document. In value terms, UPI transactions soared nearly eight times during the year, according to RBI data. Instant payment system UPI is developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.

Item Volume (crore) Value (Rs crore) 2018-19 2017-18 2018-19 2017-18 RTGS 13.66 12.44 135,688,200 116,712,500 NEFT 231.89 194.64 22,793,600 17,222,900 IMPS 175.29 100.98 1,590,300 892,500 UPI 535.34 91.52 877,000 109,800 Total card payments 1,078.12 820.76 1,409,700 1,060,700 Total retail payments 2,437.16 1,576.05 36,407,300 28,561,300 RTGS system includes customer and inter-bank transactions only; figures for cards are for transactions at point-of-sale terminals only (including online transactions) (Source: RBI)

In value terms, payments and settlement systems logged an increase of 14.2 per cent in 2018-19, as against 11.9 per cent the previous year. The contribution of electronic transactions in the total number of retail payments rose to 95.4 per cent during the year, as against 92.6 per cent in 2017-18, the RBI said in its report released last month.

The number of total retail payments in the country jumped 54.64 per cent to 2,437.16 crore in the year ended June 30. That translated into a Rs 364.07 lakh crore worth of total retail payments.

Out of these, the number of UPI transactions increased to 535.34 crore in 2018-19, from 91.52 crore the previous year. In terms of transaction value, Rs 8,77,000 crore worth of UPI payments were carried out in 2018-19, as against Rs 1,09,800 crore in the year ended June 2018, RBI data showed.