After nearly a month of the KYC deadline issued by the Reserve Bank of India for mobile wallets, the Central Bank of India released data showing a surge in the growth of online UPI based transactions. UPI is a one touch transaction for transferring money between any two parties using a ‘unique virtual address’ on a smartphone.
According to further reports received from the Reserve Bank of India, UPI transactions surged by nearly 50% as compared to the value of the debit cards and credit cards swiped at the stores in the month of February. Over the last 12 months, the UPI based transactions have increased by 7,000%.
The UPI driven form of payments comes after the IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) structure of payments. Since its launch, the technology has been adopted by various banks and other private fintech companies.
With more and more customers coming under the umbrella of digital inclusion, the adoption of UPI based payments has increased triple fold. Thanks to the Government’s initiative to push digital payments as opposed to brick and mortar payments, this move comes as a boon.
However, while this has been working in favour of UPI based apps, it comes as a blow to the credit and debit card companies. The recently released RBI report also said that these UPI apps, currently valued at $ 200 billion, is going to increase five fold in the next couple of years and by the year 2020, stand at a valuation of $ 500 billion.
The real test of these apps, however, will be seen by the end of March this year, when the deadline set by the RBI for the KYC deadline closes. With the nearing of the deadline, the UPI based apps are expected to take a hit, while the credit and debit card providing banks are expected to see a rise!