Digital Payments to Expand 400 Percent by 2020

Thursday, October 11th, 2018

More and more retailers and consumers are adopting Digital Payments, and a joint study by two firms show the sector may expand 400 percent in the coming 5 years. Recent studies suggest that around 40 percent of India’s entire population is unbanked and cash still rules over 80 percent of all payments in India.

Digital payments in 2-5 years

Speculations are that by 2020, India will process around 720 billion transactions with the help of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) technology. The total value of the transactions on India’s digital payment platforms are “likely to grow by 400 per cent from Rs 20,000 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 100,000 crore by 2023,” according to the joint study by PwC India and City Corporation of London.

“By the year 2020, up to 720 billion transactions will likely be made in India through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) tech,” the research said. As we speak, 40 percent of the entire Indian population is unbanked and over 80 percent of Indian payments are still being made through cash.

The UK and India to collaborate

The newly rolled out Payment Service Directive (PSD2, launched in Jan. 2018) has increased the compliance costs for businesses. “The United Kingdom’s reputation as the head of cyber security and India’s proficiency in software innovation provides the perfect opportunity to collaborate. But there is still a gap in development of skills that the industry regulators should take in hand,” the study said.

The mutual study also suggested several recommendations should the UK and India collaborate advising industry watchdogs for both countries to work with the payment experts. That way, they can learn all the potential opportunities as well as setbacks.

Now, all stakeholders and industry experts remain optimistic the two nations will work together to improve the digital payments industry.  The City Corporation of London, has for example supported the continued exchanges and interaction in FinTech between India and the UK. It is also an associate of the Indian High Commission’s Access India programme.

Hopefully, more people will take up digital payments, tech experts will play their role and the 400 percent growth prediction will come true by 2020. Now that retailers can get the cheapest merchant account uk, they should focus more on taking digital payments.