UPI transactions likely to touch 100 billion mark in next 10 years: NPCI chief

The country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has the potential to touch 100 billion transactions in the next 10-15 years backed by credit growth, according to Dilip Asbe, CEO of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). "We are looking at 100 billion transactions in the next 10-15 years which is a fairly achievable number. And, credit is going to be the backbone of this growth," Asbe said at the Global Fintech Fest here.

He pointed out that credit has already been launched on UPI and the commercials would be released within in a couple of weeks. "I think the small ticket and high-frequency credit is going to be important to reach that goal." He also said that growing fintech transactions would play a crucial role in driving up UPI usage. "We are fairly convinced that recurring payments mandate QRs and EMI QRs will drive that usage," he remarked.

According to official figures, as many as 13.89 billion transactions were recorded on UPI in June up from 14.04 billion in May. According to consultancy firm PwC India report, the number of transactions on UPI is expected to jump more than 3-fold from about 131 billion in 2023-24 to 439 billion by 2028-29, accounting for 91 percent of total retail digital transactions.

The report titled 'The Indian Payments Handbook - 2024-29' states that India's digital payments landscape has witnessed remarkable growth over the past eight years and the industry is projected to expand more than three times in volume, from 159 billion transactions in 2023-24 to 481 billion by 2028-29. In terms of the value of payment transactions, the market growth is expected to more than double, from Rs 265 lakh crore to Rs 593 lakh crore during this period.

The PwC India report puts the year-on-year growth in transaction volume on UPI at 57 percent. The report also states that credit cards have recorded a robust growth in 2023-24 with the industry adding more than 16 million new cards. This has resulted in a 22 percent and 28 percent surge in transactional volume and value, respectively. According to the report, credit cards are expected to reach 200 million by 2028-29