RuPay card transactions grew faster than overall debit card use over the past three years, indicating wider and faster adoption of the domestic card payment system. RuPay, which is run by the National Payments Corporation of India, competes with other global card payments systems such as Visa and Mastercard.
RuPay reported 1 billion transactions through both online and offline merchant payment modes in financial year 2019, a nearly 70% jump compared to the 667 million transactions in financial year 2018, according to data sourced from the NPCI and the Reserve Bank of India.
RuPay transactions had risen 135% in fiscal year 2018, compared to the previous year.
In contrast, debit cards overall were swiped 4.4 billion times for merchant payments in FY19, a jump of 32% from 3.3 billion transactions in FY18. It grew less than 40% in FY 18, compared to financial year 2017.
RuPay is being increasingly preferred, albeit on a low base, and industry executives say this could be because more people are using cards for payment in smaller cities and towns.
“RuPay currently has 33% market share of card transactions. Today, there are over 1,100 banks issuing around 600 million RuPay cards, half of which are in the mid and premium segments,” said Praveena Rai, chief operating officer, Rupay.
NPCI has also been promoting its use through multiple offers.
A 50% cash back offer across restaurants in the United Kingdom during the cricket World Cup held recently helped RuPay shore up its user base, Rai said, adding it was running more than 1,000 offers currently. “We have seen RuPay grow to almost 23% of total debit card transactions on our platform, against 17% over the last one year, which is an impressive jump,” said Rajeev Agrawal, chief executive officer, Innoviti Payments, which processes card transactions for banks. “In some small towns with a population between 10 lakh and 25 lakh, the NPCI-run cards have also become number one in terms of usage on our platform.”
The total amount settled through RuPay cards jumped almost 80% in FY19, beating overall debit card payments, which grew 30% compared to the previous fiscal year.
Further, the share of RuPay cards among total number of card transactions has gone up to more than 25% now, from around 11% two years ago.
“Though the government has not mandated only these cards should be issued, a large number of public sector banks are extensively issuing RuPay cards,” said a senior banker who did not wish to be named.
