UPI transactions can touch 100 bn in next 10-15 years: Dilip Asbe

He was responding to a question posed by Kunal Shah, serial entrepreneur and founder of Cred, at the Global Fintech Fest on what will bring the next millions to the UPI ecosystem

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has the potential to touch 100 billion transactions in the next 10-15 years but this will come on the back of credit growth, said Dilip Asbe, chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

“We are looking at 100 billion transactions in the next 10-15 years and have done the math earlier too …and it is a fairly achievable number. And, credit is going to be the backbone of this growth,” said Asbe.

He was responding to a question posed by Kunal Shah, serial entrepreneur and founder of Cred, at the Global Fintech Fest.

Asbe added: “We have launched the credit on UPI and in a couple of weeks we will release the commercials. I think the small ticket and high frequency credit is going to be important to reach that goal.”

He was also of the opinion that the role of fintech will be crucial in driving this usage.

“We are fairly convinced that recurring payments mandate QRs and EMI QRs will drive that usage…today it’s a tedious process,” he added.

According to details from UPI, the transaction volume for June was 13.89 billion. In May, it was 14.04 billion.

But Amrish Rau, founder and CEO of Pine Labs, felt that for credit to grow, it will depend on three factors.

“These are speed of credit delivery, cost of credit and trust in the credit. We have started on this journey, but I think the Indian user has not yet adopted credit for personal and economic growth,” added Rau during the panel discussion on the ‘Future of Fintech’.

Shailendra Singh of Peak XV Partners said that while he believes in credit being a strong balancing force, it has to be given responsibly.