MUMBAI: Digital payments have surged to represent as much as 99.8 percent of the total transaction volume and 97.7 percent in value at Rs 1,572 trillion during the first half 2025, a significant increase from 2019 when the digital payments began to gain traction, show the latest RBI data. In 2019, digital payments accounted for around 96.7 percent of the total payments by volume and 95.5 percent by value.
However, in 2014, these figures were at 99.7 percent in volume and 97.5 percent in value, the Reserve Bank said in its Payments System Report on Thursday.
This means that during the past five years, digital payments have increased 6.6 times in volume and 1.6 times in value, clipping annually at 46 percent in volume and 10 percent in value. The total payment transactions during the first half of this year amounted to Rs 1,572 trillion, of which as much as Rs 1,536 trillion were done digitally.
In a UPI vs RTGS comparison, the data show that during the first six months of 2025, UPI accounted for the largest share at 85 percent of transactions in volume, but was only 9 percent in value. The real time gross settlement (RTGS) system recorded the largest share of 69 percent in value and just 0.1 percent in volume. RTGS, being the primary large-value payment system, registered a volume growth of from 14.8 crore in 2019 to 29.5 crore in 2024, while transaction value increased from Rs 1,388.7 trillion to Rs 1,938.2 trillion.
This is because UPI processes a very large number of small-value transactions, resulting in a high share in terms of volume, but a relatively lower share in terms of value. Meanwhile, RTGS, also called the wholesale payment system, contributes higher in terms of value since it has a band of minimum transaction amount of Rs 2 lakh. The large value payment systems include RTGS and the systems operated by Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL).
In recent years, the CCIL transactions have observed an increasing trend with an increase 35 lakh in 2019 to 45 lakh in 2024 in terms of volume. However, in terms of value, they increased from Rs 1,270 trillion to Rs 2,780 trillion during this period. During the first half of 2025, a total of 28.8 lakh transactions of value Rs 1,734 trillion were recorded. The central bank also noted that the government securities market has seen a notable expansion from a value of Rs 769 trillion in 2019 to Rs 1,812 trillion in 2024.
In 2024, volume also increased from 13.76 lakh in 2019 to 17.6 lakh in 2024. During H1 2025, a total of 9.85 lakh transactions with a total value of Rs 994 trillion processed.Meanwhile, forex clearing transactions grew from 16.6 lakh transactions worth Rs 466 trillion in 2020 to 26.3 lakh transactions amounting to Rs 885 trillion in 2024. During the first six months of 2025, these transactions amounted to Rs 682 trillion in value.
During the past decade, digital transactions have jumped 38 times in volume and more than three times in value, RBI said, adding this translates into an annualised growth rate of 52.5 percent in terms of volume and 13 percent in terms of value in 2024. The country’s digital payments ecosystem comprises a variety of payment options including credit and debit cards, UPI, IMPS, NEFT, RTGS, digital and mobile wallets, net banking etc.
