
According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report, nearly 80% of digital payments in the country were conducted through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the financial year 2024 (FY24). This marks a significant increase from UPI’s share of 73.4% in FY23 and 36.8% in FY20 compared to the cumulative volume of digital payments in India. UPI has become one of the most popular methods for digital transactions in recent years.
In FY24, the total volume of digital payments reached 164.4 billion transactions, a 44% year-on-year increase from 113.9 billion transactions in FY23. This growth has been supported by the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) which subsidized the deployment of various digital payment methods such as Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, mobile PoS terminals, and interoperable Quick Response (QR) codes. The number of PoS terminals increased by 14.3% to 8.9 million, while the number of Bharat QR (BQR) codes increased by 16.1% to 6.2 million in FY24. UPI QR codes also saw a 35% year-on-year increase to 346 million codes by the end of FY24.
The RBI’s annual report also mentioned plans to take UPI international. The RBI, in collaboration with NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL), aims to expand UPI to 20 countries by 2028-29, with an initiation timeline of 2024-25. This highlights the ambition to extend the reach of UPI beyond the borders of India.
Debit card transactions, on the other hand, have seen a decline, reaching a five-year low. In FY24, there were 2.28 billion transactions on debit cards, a 33% decrease year-on-year from 3.41 billion transactions in FY23. This represents a significant drop from the 5.06 billion debit card transactions recorded in FY20.
In contrast, credit card transactions have continued to rise. In FY24, there were 3.56 billion credit card transactions, a 22% increase year-on-year from 2.9 billion transactions in FY23. This indicates a growing preference for credit cards as a mode of payment.
Overall, the RBI’s annual report highlights the dominance of UPI in the digital payments landscape in India, the growth of digital transactions, the support provided by the PIDF, and the shifting trends in debit and credit card usage.