New Delhi, Oct 23 : India's digital payments landscape continues its rapid expansion, with digital transactions accounting for 99.8 per cent of the total payment volume and 97.7 per cent of the total transaction value in the first half of 2025 (H1 2025), according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) continues to dominate the digital ecosystem, accounting for 85 per cent of transactions by volume and 9 per cent by value in the first six months of the year.

During this time, the UPI system handled 10,637 crore transactions, valued at Rs 143.3 lakh crore, compared to Rs 117 lakh crore in the previous year. According to the RBI, UPI's effectiveness, round-the-clock accessibility, and user-friendliness continue to make it the most popular retail fast payment system in India.

On the other hand, although it only made up 0.1 per cent of the total volume, the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, which facilitates high-value transfers, held the largest share in terms of value at 69 per cent. In 2024, there were 29.5 crore RTGS transactions, up from 14.8 crore in 2019, and the transaction value increased from Rs 1,388.7 lakh crore to Rs 1,938.2 lakh crore.

RTGS handled 16.1 crore transactions totalling Rs 1,079.2 lakh crore in the first half of 2025 alone.

The RBI explained the divergent trends in volume and value shares by pointing out that RTGS mainly handles large-value transfers with a minimum transaction threshold of Rs 2 lakh, whereas UPI processes a large number of small-value transactions. Of the Rs 1,572 lakh crore in total payment transactions that took place during that time, Rs 1,536 lakh crore were handled digitally.

The Clearing Corporation of India Limited's (CCIL) large-value payment systems saw growth as well. The number of CCIL transactions increased from 35 lakh in 2019 to 45 lakh in 2024, and their value increased from Rs 1,270 lakh crore to Rs 2,780 lakh crore. CCIL recorded 28.8 lakh transactions totalling Rs 1,734 lakh crore in the first half of 2025.

The RBI data demonstrates how UPI and other innovations, along with persistent efforts to encourage cashless transactions throughout the economy, have led to India's payments ecosystem becoming overwhelmingly digital.

/IANS