UPI Daily Transactions Expected to Cross 1 Billion-Mark in Next 5 Years: Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the Unified Payments Interface-based transaction is expected to reach one billion per day in the next five years.

Addressing an event organised by the industry body FICCI, Sitharaman said that the data released by NPCI shows that UPI reported 6.28 billion transactions worth Rs. 10.62 trillion (nearly Rs. 11,00,000 crore) in July 2022.

“Substantial growth is being seen in transactions on a monthly basis. UPI aims to process one billion transactions a day in the next five years,” she said.

The Finance Minister also said that technology adoption in India is very high not only in major cities but also in tier-2 and 3 cities and rural areas. “Digital adoption by Indian citizen is amazing,” she added.

Addressing the session ‘Future of Financing’ at FICCI LEADS 2022, Sitharaman said that the future of finance is going to be Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) and “there is a sense of urgency with which we need to plan.”

She also stated that the role of artificial intelligence is going to be critical in fintech sector. “I see a big role for AI in fintech sector in detection of fraud, crime and accessing the risks. We will have to ensure personal data security, national and cyber security in our planning,” she added.

The Finance Minister stated that India is working on a system where only a single KYC is needed which can be used across different spheres.

Sitharaman further stated that the future of finance will be driven more and more through banking and related services and account aggregators will play a crucial role in it. “Account aggregator system has been adopted by 21 banks including public sector banks,” she added.

The union minister emphasised that the link between start-ups, fintech and private equity is visible. There are 6,636 start-ups and 21 unicorns in fintech sector and private equity have helped them to become start-up. “Private equity is pushing them quickly in the path of progress,” she said.

“We need to make sure that climate risks are not going to hit us because we are talking about a future that is digital,” she added.