The PwC India report projected that UPI transactions are expected to exceed one billion per day by 2026-27, accounting for 90% of retail digital payments in the nation. According to the PwC report titled “The Indian Payments Handbook – 2022-27,” it accounted for almost 75% of the overall transaction volume in the retail industry during 2022-23.
The Indian digital payments industry is predicted to reach 411 billion transactions in 2026-27, up from 103 billion in 2022-23, at a CAGR of 50%. UPI is expected to achieve 1 billion transactions per day by FY2026-2027, up from 83.71 billion in 2022-23 to 379 billion in 2026-27.
It also stated that the credit card market is growing at a healthy rate since card (both debit and credit) payment is one of the most popular retail digital payment instruments after UPI. Credit card transactions are predicted to outnumber debit card transactions by fiscal year 2024-2025.
While credit card issuance is predicted to rise at a strong 21% CAGR over the next five years, debit card issuance is expected to expand at a 3% CAGR over the same period.
According to Partner and Payments Transformation Leader at PwC India, Mihir Gandhi, the payments sector is projected to focus on ecosystem development and new use cases for existing payment systems over the next five years.
Gandhi added “Areas like embedded and ecosystem finance, digital lending based on payment transactions and offline payments will drive the next phase of growth for the payments industry. In the ever-evolving Indian payments landscape, innovation and inclusion are paving the way for a seamless digital economy”.
According to the PwC analysis, income from credit cards accounts for roughly 76% of total card revenue in 2022-2023, making it a profitable business category for banks, NBFCs, and FinTech.
The income from credit card issuance climbed by 42% in 2022-2023 compared to 2021-2022, and it is expected to expand at a CAGR of 33% over the following five years.