The number of transactions via real-time payments system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) reached a fresh milestone, hitting a new high of 1.14 billion in October. Such transactions grew by a fifth since September, data released by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed.

These transactions were worth ₹1.91 trillion in October as compared to ₹1.46 trillion a month ago.

On a year-on-year basis, there has been there has been a threefold or 138% jump in such transactions, data showed.

The change in the payments landscape is a result of innovation, coupled with the government and the banking regulator’s attempt to move to a ‘less-cash economy’. This led to UPI –developed by NPCI, which is backed by the Reserve Bank of India--getting one of the most popular modes of digital payments since its launch three years ago. In fact, according to the RBI annual report, number of transactions via UPI was 1.2 times higher the number of debit card transactions in 2018-19.

The user base of the real-time payment system is set to expand five-times to 500 million in the next three years, NPCI chief executive officer Dilip Asbe told Mint earlier this week.

“UPI has recently crossed 100 million users, making it one of the fastest adoptions of any payments system anywhere in the world. NPCI’s objective for the next three years is to expand the UPI user base to 500 million," Asbe had told Mint.

“It is encouraging to witness digital payments being widely accepted across the country. UPI’s integration with third-party apps and bank support has provided impetus to P2P (peer-to-peer) as well as P2M (person-to- merchant) electronic payments which resulted in this momentous achievement," Asbe had said, adding that in the next two years, the merchant ecosystem will get digitised with the number of QR codes set to treble to 30 million.

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