Mobile wallet transactions rise 16% in May: RBI's monthly bulletin

Mobile wallet transactions surged in May with a 16 per cent growth in volume and a 22 per cent rise in value over the previous month, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) monthly bulletin.

Mobile wallet transactions for May stood at 326.02 million in volume and Rs 142.39 billion in value, against 279.29 million and Rs 116.95 billion respectively in April.

The wallet industry has faced a rocky path during the year due to the rise of United Payments Interface (UPI) as well as stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) rule enforced upon them. This had resulted in a drop in wallet transactions over the past few months.

However, UPI transactions volume in May had seen a marginal fall during the same period, though it picked up in June, as per National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data.

Prepaid payment instruments (PPI) — comprising mobile wallets, PPI cards and paper vouchers — grew 7 per cent in volume to 350.74 million in June. The value rose 16 per cent to Rs 155.21 billion.

Electronics payments, on a whole, however, saw a marginal rise in volume in May over the previous month while value grew over 8 per cent. The volume for May rose to 230,110 million from 211,713 million in April.

Mobile banking volume for May grew 6 per cent to 266 million but value jumped 30 per cent to Rs 1,757 billion.

Credit and debit cards saw a single digit growth in both volume and value. The value of credit card payments was Rs 474.01 billion in May against Rs 451.74  billion in April. The value of debit card payments for May rose to Rs 470.52 billion from Rs 448.34 billion in April.