UPI, PoS, mobile payments drive digital payments in 2H says Worldline Report

Mumbai: India’s digital payments ecosystem witnessed a record growth in the second half of 2024, driven by Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the expansion of POS infrastructure, and the growing preference for mobile transactions said the Worldline India’s India Digital Payments Report 2H 2024.

UPI continues to dominate the digital payments space with transaction volume expanding 42 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 9323 crore transactions and transaction value growing by 31 per cent to Rs 130.19 lakh crore. Both segments of UPI--person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments witnessed strong growth. P2P transactions increased by 30 per cent, rising from 2704 crore in the

second half of 2023 to 3521 crore in the same period of 2024. P2M transactions volume rose by 50 per cent to 5803 crore and the total value increasing by 43 per cent to Rs 36.35 lakh crore. Interestingly, the average transaction size for in 2H 2024 was Rs 1,396 as against Rs 1,515 in the year-ago period, translating into an 8 per cent decline, indicating the increasing usage of UPI for low value transactions. Ramesh Narasimhan, Chief Executive Officer , Worldline India, said, "India’s digital payments ecosystem is evolving at an unprecedented pace, driven by UPI’s widespread adoption, the expansion of POS infrastructure, and the growing preference for mobile transactions.

The rapid rise of SoftPOS technology is redefining how businesses accept payments, making digital transactions more accessible than ever.”

Card payments in the second half of 2024 grew by 11 per cent to 400 crore transactions, mainly driven by a 36 per cent jump in credit card usage, which reached 242 crore transactions. However, debit card transactions dropped by 29 per cent to 82 lakh while prepaid card transactions rose by 11 per cent to 86 lakh. The POS Terminals crossed 1 crore mark, 23 per cent year on year growth in deployment. The mobile payments transactions surged 41 per cent to 8854 crore reinforcing mobile-first financial behaviour, said the report.