Ever since the advent of the Narendra Modi government, the cash reliant Indian economy has received a major push when it comes to digital transactions. Now, a recent report has revealed that India has trumped China and the USA with over 25 billion digital transactions in 2020.
The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic was a major boom for digital transactions and merchants as the heavy cash reliant Indian economy and consumers adopted digital mode of payments at a rapid pace. The assured safety coupled with the hassle-free mode of payment has made carrying wallets a thing of the past especially in the post-pandemic era.
India’s real-time online transactions reached an all-time high in 2020 and thereby pipped China and the USA. India recorded at least 25.5 billion real-time transactions, with China trailing with 15.7 billion transactions followed by 6 billion in South Korea, 5.2 billion in Thailand, with the United Kingdom recording 2.8 billion transactions. In fact, the USA just made the cut in the top 10 list at number 9 nine with 1.2 billion transactions.
According to the ACI Worldwide report, online transactions are all set to occupy a 71.7% share of all the payments in India by 2025. The other mode of payments namely cash and cheque will only occupy 28.3% share. Currently, paper-based payments occupy a whopping 61.4% share.
The report further predicts that instant payments volume is set to increase to over 37%, while the share of other electronic payments is likely to grow to over 34%.
The report stated, “This is poised to change by 2025 where the share of volume by instant payments and other electronic payments is expected to rise to 37.1 per cent and 34.6 per cent respectively, leaving the volume of paper-based transactions at 28.3 per cent.”
It added, “More than 70.3 billion real-time payments transactions were processed globally in 2020, a surge of 41 per cent compared to the previous year, as the Covid-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated trends away from cash and cheques towards greater reliance on real-time and digital payments.”
Kaushik Roy, VP and head of product management, Asia, ME and Africa, ACI Worldwide said, “India’s journey of creating a digital financial infrastructure has been characterized by collaboration between the government, the regulator, banks and fintechs. This has helped to advance the country’s goal of enabling financial inclusion and also provided rapid payments digitization for citizens.”
He added, “As the industry evolves, we expect to see increased adoption across different users and volume growth driven by mass adoption, recurring payments, transit payments as well as cross-border transactions.”
The above numbers truly suggest that India’s real-time online transactions are on an all-time high as it has left behind big economies like the US and China and it would not wrong to assume that a few years down the line, India will surely become the vishwaguru.