Fiscal 2017-18 has been a year of transformation for BHIM Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions and activity on the platform is expected to further increase this fiscal.According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), there were BHIM UPI transactions of approximately 913 million in volume and close to ₹1 trillion in value in FY18.
“Goodbye 2017-18; NPCI processed BHIM UPI ~1 billion in volume and ~1 trillion rupees in value. 2018-19 brings in new players, use cases & superior UX,” NPCI CEO Dilip Asbe tweeted on Sunday.
UPI, which allows instant money transfer between bank accounts through mobile phones has witnessed a spike in growth over the last several months owing to smartphone-based payment applications like Paytm, Flipkart’s PhonePe, Google Tez and WhatsApp, which launched its beta version with payment feature in February.
FY18 began at a paltry 7 million transaction volume which was recorded in April last year. However, growth picked up around September when transaction volumes almost doubled from 16 million in the previous month.
UPI is slowly emerging as the poster child for digital payments in India. ET recently reported that NPCI is planning to open up UPI as a mode of transaction for international inward settlements that now take place through IMPS or NEFT.