UPI most preferred payment mode among consumers with 56% share: study

That said, cards are still dominating the merchant acceptance payments ecosystem, with 26% market share by volume, 53% by value

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as the most preferred payment mode among consumers, with a person-to-merchant (P2M) market share of 56 per cent in volume terms in calendar year (CY) 21, according to a report by Wordline India. In value terms, UPI merchant transactions account for 41 per cent of the market share.

Having said that, cards are still dominating the merchant acceptance payments ecosystem, with 26 per cent market share in volume terms, and 53 per cent in value terms. Among cards, credit cards have 26 per cent and 8 per cent market share in value and volume terms, respectively. Similarly, debit cards have a market share of 23 per cent and 14 per cent in value and volume terms, respectively.

In CY21, UPI processed more than 38 billion transactions, amounting to Rs 71.59 trillion. According to the report, in December 2021, out of total UPI volumes, 62 per cent transactions were P2P (person-to person) while 38 per cent were P2M. And, the average ticket size of UPI P2M transaction in 2021 was Rs 786. As per the latest data, the volume of P2M transactions on UPI has gone upto 42 per cent.

In 2021, the total number of cards in circulation, both debit and credit cards, in the country breached the one billion mark, with 1006.7 million cards as of December 2021. While outstanding credit cards increased by 14 per cent from 60.39 million in December 2020 to 68.95 million in December 2021 while outstanding debit cards increased by 6 per cent from 886.41 million to 937.75 million during the same period.

In credit card segment, private banks issued around 67 per cent of the cards, with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI Cards being the top issuer, in debit cards, public sector banks accounted for 68 per cent of the cards issued because of massive issuance of RuPay debit cards to Jan Dhan accounts. In 2021, 68 million debit cards were issued under the scheme.

In CY21, credit cards volume and value stood at 2.15 billion and Rs 8.88 trillion respectively. And, debit card transactions volume and value stood at 4.12 billion and Rs 7.42 trillion respectively.