Fintech Leaders Welcome Index Data
RBI-DPI for Sep 2021 stands at 304.06 as against 270.59 for March 2021
MUMBAI, Jan 21 (The CONNECT) – The Reserve Bank of India – Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) continues to demonstrate significant growth in adoption and deepening of digital payments across the country. The index that the extent of digitisation of payments across the country for September 2021 stands at 304.06 as against 270.59 for March 2021, according to RBI.
“It is heartening to see the growth for digital payments in India. This showcases that we are on the right path of achieving our goal of a digitally inclusive Bharat,” Dilip Modi, Founder of Spice Money said.
Digital operations have gained massive traction over the last few years supported by the increasing internet and smartphone penetration in India. The pandemic added further tailwinds to this growth, he said and observed: “We look forward to sustained support and guidance from the apex finance body and the union government so that we can continue to extend digital payment-related services to citizens of Bharat, and move towards our goal of becoming a truly digital economy.”
Narayan ‘Naru’ Ramamoorthy, Chief Revenue Officer, Global PayEX, said Digital payments in India are accelerating with a strong growth of 40 percent.
ACI worldwide research 2021 declares India a global leader in real-time payment transactions surpassing China, US and UK. In addition to C2B and C2C payments, even B2B payments are seeing a huge digital disruption in India.
While demonetization and the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns fuelled the growth of digital payments, several government and RBI initiatives and regulations have also contributed to this move towards a less-cash economy, he said.
“Our B2B payment platforms have seen a huge move from cheques to voluntary NACH. Over 95 percent of B2B payments for our anchor corporates are now through NACH, NEFT, RTGS, and digital dealer/channel financing. In the next 1-2 years we see Open Banking further accelerating the NEFT/RTGS channels,” he said.
Mandar Agashe, Vice-Chairman & MD, Sarvatra Technologies ltd, said “Indian government created various platforms to help Indian citizens to transact digitally. As the payment methods were fast and convenient, Indian customers adopted them in a very big way which resulted in the acceleration of digital payments.”
He explained that large commercial banks, small finance banks, cooperative banks, and new-age fintech companies in semi-urban and rural areas have contributed significantly to expanding the reach of digital payments.
“With banks and several FinTech startups developing novel tech solutions to address citizens’ financial problems, this growth has been relatively balanced. Penetration of micro-ATMs, AePS, and PoS in rural India, constituting 65% of the country’s population, has also played a crucial role in driving digital payments,” Agashe said
Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby, said the digital payments market is significantly robust. The effect has been seen throughout the pandemic. While the lockdown restrictions during the first wave initiated the masses to transact via digital platforms, the second wave demonstrated the impact of behavioural shift among those who embraced contactless payments such as Tap-n-Pay, UPI/QR, Cards etc. With the big and small traders actively accepting digital payments, it has propelled the growth of digital transactions in the country.
At PayNearby, he said, “our focus is to make digital payments form-factor agnostic and be readily available at every corner store in Bharat so that no citizen remains underserved. We hope to bring a financially underserved and digitally-oblivious population into the mainstream. We are honoured to be partnering with Bharat in this incredible digital growth story. Zidd aage badhne ki!
