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UPI's contribution to payments ecosystem volume grows to 83.4% in FY25
The contribution of India's real-time payments system, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), to the payments ecosystem's volume grew to 83.4 per cent in the financial year 2024–25 (FY25), up from 79.4 per cent recorded in FY24.
According to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) annual report for FY25, UPI recorded 185.8 billion transactions during the year, a 41.7 per cent increase from 131.1 billion transactions processed in FY24.
The volume of credit card transactions rose to 4.7 billion in FY25, up from 3.5 billion in FY24. Debit card transactions contracted 29.5 per cent to 1.6 billion in FY25 from 2.2 billion in the previous year.
Total payments in India—including transactions across payment systems, card payments and prepaid payment instruments (PPIs)—grew to 222.6 billion in FY25, a 34.8 per cent rise from 165.1 billion transactions in the previous year.
The share of digital transactions in the total volume of non-cash retail payments was 99.9 per cent during FY25, compared to 99.8 per cent in FY24, the RBI said.
As part of its agenda for the ongoing FY26, the RBI will conduct a 'Survey on Usage of Digital Payments', which is expected to provide insights into user transaction behaviour and the challenges faced by users.
The banking regulator said it would continue promoting innovation and development of alternate payments and messaging systems.
The RBI has constituted a committee to examine various aspects of setting up a Digital Payments Intelligence Platform (DPIP) to protect customers from digital payment fraud. The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) has been tasked with building a DPIP prototype in consultation with five to ten banks.
It is also working to identify frictions in processing the beneficiary leg of cross-border payments and is expected to frame a regulatory policy or action in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
During FY25, the RBI gave final authorisations to 26 online Payment Aggregators (PAs), five Payment Aggregators–Cross Border (PA-CB), 11 non-bank PPI issuers, and one Trade Receivables and Discounting System (TReDS) platform.
The regulator conducted on-site inspections of 84 payment system operators during the year.
On taking UPI international, the RBI said NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) is working to extend the real-time payments system to 20 countries by FY29.
Acceptance of Indian UPI apps via QR codes has been operationalised in Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the UAE. This enables Indian tourists, students and business travellers to make payments to merchants using their Indian UPI apps, the RBI said.
RuPay card acceptance is live in Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius, Singapore, the UAE and the Maldives.
The RBI has approved NIPL to deploy UPI-like infrastructure in Namibia, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.
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