Immediate Payment Service, or IMPS, is gaining traction and the number of transactions rose to 19 crores in July even as the transaction value for UPI and the Centre’s flagship digital payment app BHIM continued to decline for the second straight month.

According to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India, IMPS, with 498 member-banks, hit a record high in July in terms of value, too.

As many as 18.92 crore transactions amounting to over ₹1.82-lakh crore were conducted through IMPS in July against 17.13 crore transactions worth over ₹1.73-lakh crore in June. Prior to this, the number of transactions touched a high of 19.01 crore in March but the value was lower at ₹1.76-lakh crore.

With State Bank of India removing charges on IMPS from August 1 for certain customers and transactions, it is expected that other banks will also follow suit, further increasing the usage of IMPS. The service provides real-time instant fund transfer 24X7.

Meanwhile, in the case of UPI and BHIM, while the total number of transactions on the two platforms continued to rise at a steady pace, the value of transactions dipped.

The number of UPI transactions in July touched 82.2 crore as against 75.4 crore in June. However, the value of transactions fell a tad to over ₹1.46 lakh crore from the June level. In May, the value of transactions had touched an all-time high of ₹1.52-lakh crore.

Similarly, the amount or value of transactions conducted through BHIM stood at ₹6,121.67 crore last month compared to ₹6,202.49 crore in June and ₹6,627.42 crore in May.

In terms of absolute numbers, the number of transactions on BHIM stood at 160 lakh in July but accounted for less than two per cent of all transactions through UPI.

There are 143 banks that are live on the UPI and 114 on the BHIM app.

The NPCI data come at a time when the currency in circulation is at an all-time high of over ₹21-lakh crore and even as a large number of rival apps are gaining in popularity for digital payments.

"Banks offer IMPS across all channels including internet and mobile banking and through business correspondents to customers making it easy to access. Also, it is very popular for remittances and corporate payments to customers," said Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI.

For UPI, there have been some fluctuations but the core growth is still strong, she noted