UPI ka Bolbala

While roaming my country India, what I have been observing is that #UPI transactions are already the predominant mode of electronic
#payments in country and now outdoing the number of #card transactions by nearly 8times.

THE TRIGGER

It was the #RBI document in March 2011 that revealed – 
• Only six non-cash transactions happen every year per individual citizen
• Only 10 million retailers accept card-based payment
• Around 145 million families had no access to any form of banking

The vast disparity in the numbers of people who used digital payments versus those who didn’t was worrisome, especially because of financial nuisances such as black money and corruption. 

KEY MILESTONES :

• Under RBI guidance, #NPCI (launched in 2009) became the primary body with the task to develop a new payment system that is simple, secure, and interoperable. 

• UPI, an instant real-time payment system (developed by NPCI & regulated by RBI) was officially launched in 2016 for public use

• Ministry of Finance nullified merchant discount rate (MDR) in 2019 on UPI, leading to the number of low value transactions to skyrocket 

• Further accelerated by the Covid-19 outbreak, UPI processed more than 2 billion transactions for the first time in October 2020

• The journey from 2 billion transactions a month to 3 billion was traversed in 10 months and for last three consecutive months in 2021 (October, November, and December), UPI has processed 4 billion transactions.

Fast forward, UPI has made #India a leader in global real-time payment market followed by #China and #SouthKorea (Economist Intelligence Unit Report 2021).

Thus, 2021 is definitely “the year for UPI” and here’s my first #fincuts of the year giving you a chewable view on UPI’s achievements in 2021.