India saw 88 bn payment transactions worth ₹150 tn in 2022, UPI leads

NEW DELHI: Led by Unified payments interface (UPI), payment modes like debit and credit cards, prepaid payment instruments - mobile and prepaid cards processed 87.92 billion transactions worth Rs 149.5 trillion in 2022, a report showed on Monday.

The UPI Person-to-Merchant (P2M) and Person-to-Person (P2P) are the most preferred payment modes among consumers with a market share of 40 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively, in terms of transaction volume (UPI was 84 per cent in total).

In 2022, UPI clocked over 74.05 billion transactions in volume and Rs 126 trillion in terms of value, according to the report by Worldline, a global leader in payment services.

The average ticket size (ATS) for UPI P2P transactions was Rs 2,753 and ATS for UPI P2M transactions was Rs 687 (by December 2022).

However, in terms of value, UPI P2M accounted for 18 per cent share whereas UPI P2P accounted for 66 per cent of digital transactions, according to the report.

Payment through credit and debit cards accounted for 7 per cent in volume and 14 per cent in value.

"The adoption of multiple payment solutions is a boon in our journey to realise the dream of a less-cash India," said Ramesh Narasimhan, CEO, Worldline India.

For UPI, the transaction volume and value almost doubled since last year as it recorded a 91 per cent increase in volume and over 76 per cent increase in value in 2022 as compared to 2021.

As of December 2022, the total number of POS terminals deployed by merchant acquiring banks crossed the 7.55 million mark - a 37 per cent YoY growth.

The total number of credit and debit cards in circulation by the end of 2022 was 1.02 billion, the report showed.

In 2022, credit cards volume and value stood at 2.76 billion and Rs 13.12 trillion respectively.

The debit card transactions volume and value stood at 3.64 billion and Rs 7.4 trillion, respectively.

By December 2022, the number of prepaid payment instruments was 16.23 billion. Out of which, 13.34 billion were wallets and 288.8 million were cards, said the report.