UPI payments in India hit all-time high of 1.34 billion transactions in June

Payments on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in June hit an all-time high of 1.34 billion in terms of volume with transactions worth nearly Rs 2.62 lakh crore, as per National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data.

On a month-on-month basis, it registered 8.94 per cent growth from 1.23 billion in May.

UPI payments had fallen to 999.57 million in terms of volume with transactions worth Rs 1.51 lakh crore in April, following the coronavirus-induced lockdown that halted almost all services, except essentials.

Online payments slowly gathered pace from May with staggered opening of the economy. In May, the number of UPI transactions stood at 1.23 billion valued at Rs 2.18 lakh crore, showed the NPCI data.

In June, the volume in terms of transactions touched the highest level so far, as per the data available, with the first set of data dating back to April 2016 -- with nil transaction.

The number of transactions through all the available means on NPCI platform was in upwards of 1 billion since October 2019 before dipping to 999.57 million in April this year. However, it soon regained the 1 billion-plus transaction volume in May.

NPCI was incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. It has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country.

It facilitates payments through a bouquet of retail payment products such as RuPay Card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), UPI, Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC Fastag) and Bharat BillPay.

NPCI also launched UPI 2.0 to offer more secure and comprehensive services to consumers and merchants.