Digital payments account for 99.7% transactions by volume in 2024: RBI report

Mumbai: Digital payment transactions accounted for 99.7 per cent in terms of volume and 97.5 per cent in value in the payments system during calendar year 2024, and the trend continued in the first half of 2025, according to a Reserve Bank report released on Thursday.

The payments ecosystem in India has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years, said the RBI's half-yearly Payment System Report, June 2025.

The payments landscape in India consists of a bouquet of payment systems designed to cater to the diverse needs of users, which include paper-based instruments (cheques) as well as digital payment systems.

Digital payment systems include NEFT, IMPS, RTGS, NACH, debit and credit cards, prepaid payment instruments, and UPI.

The report also showed an increasing trend across all categories, except for paper-based instruments. Cheques account for 2.3 per cent of the total transactions in terms of value.

In terms of volume, the payment transactions grew from 3,248 crore in CY 2019 to 20,849 crore in CY 2024, and in terms of value, they rose from Rs 1,775 lakh crore to Rs 2,830 lakh crore during this period.

In the half-year ended June 2025, transaction volume was 12,549 crore, amounting to Rs 1,572 lakh crore, the report said.

Almost all of the growth in payments is attributable to digital payment transactions.

In CY 2019, digital payments accounted for approximately 96.7 per cent of the total payment transactions by volume and 95.5 per cent by value.

"By CY 2024, these figures had risen to 99.7 per cent in terms of volume and 97.5 per cent in terms of value. This trend continued in H1 of 2025, with digital payments comprising 99.8 per cent of volume and 97.7 per cent of value," the report said.

In terms of volume, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) accounted for the largest share at 85 per cent during the first half of 2025 (H1 2025). It accounted for a modest nine per cent in terms of value during the same period.

On the other hand, during this period, the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system recorded the largest share of 69 per cent in terms of value but accounted for the lowest share of 0.1 per cent in terms of volume.

"Being a large value payment system, also called a wholesale payment system, RTGS, with a minimum transaction amount of Rs 2 lakh, contributes higher in terms of transaction value but records fewer transactions than other payment systems," the report said.

UPI, on the other hand, processes a large number of small-value transactions, resulting in a high share in terms of volume, but a relatively lower share in terms of value.

RTGS transactions volume grew from 14.8 crore in CY 2019 to 29.5 crore in CY 2024, while transaction value increased from Rs 1,388.7 lakh crore to Rs 1,938.2 lakh crore during this period.

In CY 2025, by H1 alone, RTGS recorded 16.1 crore transactions amounting to Rs 1,079.2 lakh crore, indicating sustained growth and usage.

During CY 2019-2024, NEFT transactions more than tripled in terms of volume, from 262.2 crore to 926.8 crore.

However, during the same period, in terms of value, it grew to Rs 432.8 lakh crore from Rs 232.9 lakh crore.

In H1 of CY 2025, NEFT has already processed 490.5 crore transactions, amounting to Rs 237 lakh crore, indicating sustained growth and widespread adoption, the report said.

It further said UPI has become the most widely used retail fast payment system (FPS) in India due to its efficiency, round-the-clock availability, and ease of use.

The volume of UPI transactions has increased significantly to 17,221 crore transactions in CY 2024 from 1,079 crore transactions in CY 2019.

The total value of transactions increased from Rs 18.4 lakh crore in CY 2019 to Rs 246.8 lakh crore in CY 2024.

In H1 of CY 2025, the volume of UPI transactions stood at 10,637 crore, amounting to Rs 143.3 lakh crore in value. The lower average ticket size of UPI transactions indicates that UPI is mainly used for small-value transactions.

Credit card transactions have also seen a surge over the years.

Transaction volumes increased from 208.7 crore in 2019 to 447.2 crore in 2024, while value rose from Rs 7.1 lakh crore to Rs 20.4 lakh crore. In H1 2025, 266.3 crore transactions amounting to Rs 11.1 lakh crore were recorded.

Private sector banks continue to dominate the credit card space, focusing on digital and co-branded offerings for customers, as their share increased from 65.8 per cent in June 2020 to 70.8 per cent in June 2025.

The share of public sector banks (PSBs) grew from 22.5 per cent to 24.1 per cent during the period.

In contrast, the share of foreign banks saw a steep decline, from 11.7 per cent to 4.1 per cent, as their outstanding credit cards reduced from 67 lakh to 45 lakh cards during the same period.

Small Finance Banks had issued 10 lakh cards by June 2025.

Transactions using debit cards have declined since 2019, both in volume and value.

"While credit cards are being increasingly used for online purchases and credit access, debit cards are mostly being used for cash withdrawals and basic transactions," the report said.

Both instruments, however, face growing competition from digital alternatives, it added.