UPI and Credit Card Spend Drive 19.6% Growth in July Merchant Payments

A report released on Friday highlights that July’s digital payments to merchants expanded by 19.6 percent, reaching a total of ₹11.73 lakh crore. The growth was largely powered by increased activity on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and higher credit‑card usage.

Equiris Securities’ figures show that the July total surpasses the ₹9.80 lakh crore recorded in the same month a year earlier and also exceeds June’s ₹11.17 lakh crore, indicating a 5 percent month‑on‑month rise.

UPI merchant‑to‑merchant (P2M) transactions grew 23.5 percent year‑over‑year, while credit‑card spend rose 7.4 percent. UPI‑based merchant payments contributed ₹9.066 lakh crore, representing 77.3 percent of the overall digital merchant payment volume.

Credit‑card transactions added ₹2.081 lakh crore, accounting for 17.7 percent of the total. Debit‑card spend fell 0.8 percent on an annual basis but rose 7.4 percent from June, reaching ₹37,700 crore.

Pre‑paid cards and digital wallets together generated ₹20,300 crore in transactions—₹6,600 crore from prepaid cards and ₹13,700 crore from wallets—up 41.1 percent year‑on‑year and 4.3 percent month‑on‑month.

The number of active credit cards climbed to 12.29 crore, an increase of 12.67 lakh cards over the previous month. E‑commerce remained the primary channel for credit‑card spend, representing 63.6 percent of total credit‑card usage. The average monthly e‑commerce spend per card was ₹10,772, compared with ₹6,165 at point‑of‑sale terminals. Average transaction values stood at ₹4,301 for e‑commerce and ₹2,579 for in‑store purchases, while the average number of transactions per credit card rose to 4.90 from 4.75 in June.