Volume, value of UPI transactions slip due to downtime with bank servers

The volume and value of transactions on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) slipped to 403 million and Rs 66,834.8 crore, respectively on Wednesday as many users failed to make payments using the real-time payment service after several bank servers suffered a widespread outage. According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the volume and value of transactions on UPI were pegged at 430.42 million and Rs 77,049 crore, respectively, a day before the widespread outage.

NPCI stated that it was working with banks after they faced technical issues on February 6.

“Regret inconvenience on UPI connectivity as few of the banks are having some internal technical issues. NPCI systems are working fine and we are working with these banks to ensure quick resolution,” the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on X (formerly Twitter) the same day. 

NPCI declined to respond to queries sent by Business Standard. For the first six days of this month, NPCI has recorded an average transaction volume of 424.9 million.

Many UPI users took to social media on Tuesday to narrate their ordeal.

“Server is still down. I have been unable to perform UPI transactions since morning. Kindly resolve the issue at the earliest,” a user posted on X.

"Yes, this is @HDFC Bank! Nothing is going with new-age banking. Mobile Banking, UPI, Trading Account... everything is down when you badly need it. The bank makes you frustrated at the merchant when you initiate payment through UPI. Please look into it (sic)," posted an affected user on X.

Meanwhile, UPI transactions clocked a new high in value in January by touching Rs 18.41 trillion, up marginally by 1 per cent from Rs 18.23 trillion in December. Transactions increased by 1.5 per cent to 12.20 billion, compared to 12.02 billion in October.

In November, value was seen at Rs 17.4 trillion with 11.4 billion transactions. According to data shared by the NPCI, January numbers were 52 per cent higher in volume and 42 per cent higher in value compared to the same month in the last financial year.