UPI hits 16 billion transactions in October setting new record aided by festive spends

Riding festive season highs, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) reported 16.58 billion transactions in October, up 45% year-on-year. Data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) also showed that the settlements amounted to Rs 23.5 lakh crore, up 34% year-on-year.

In the previous month, UPI had crossed the 15 billion transactions landmark.

Average daily transactions went up to 535 million in October from 500 million in September.


On October 30, the day of Dhanteras, 546 million UPI transactions were settled, a record of sorts.

Among other payment modes run by NPCI, FASTag, an automated toll payment system, saw 345 million transactions in October, up 8% year-on-year. On the other hand, Immediate Payment Service or IMPS, the bank-based retail fund transfer mechanism IMPS, saw a decline of 5% year-on-year to 467 million transactions during the month. The number was, however, higher than 430 million transactions recorded in September.

UPI is becoming the de facto small value fund transfer mechanism in the country, with more banks joining the ecosystem. In September, 622 banks were live on the payment network, up from 492 a year ago, as per the NPCI data.

ET reported on October 24 that the NPCI has asked banks and other financial institutions to stop using UPI rails for any other “unauthorised” service beyond payments, balance enquiry, fraud check and account validation.