Mobile transactions up 350% in fourth quarter
NEWDELHI: Transactions through mobile wallets grew at 350% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) to $3.6 billion in the quarter ending March 31, a report by consulting firm RedSeer said.
Number of transactions also increased 80% over this period.
The spurt is largely the result of Indian government’s currency exchange exercise, popularly called demonetisation, launched on November 8 last year.
It scrapped 500- and 1,000-rupee notes and replaced them with new ₹500 and ₹2,000 notes, in a bid to draw “black money” into the system.
Paytm, owned by Alibababacked One97 Communications Ltd, PayU Money and MobiKwik were among a dozen digital wallets that became providential beneficiary of the move.
To be sure, most banks also operate their own wallets, such as HDFC Chillr, ICICI Pockets and State Bank Buddy.
Post-demonetisation however, as liquidity returned to the systems (with the automated teller machines and banks receiving new notes), the average value of the each transaction dropped quarter on quarter, the RedSeer showed.
One transaction, on an average, was for $4.4 in the quarter under review, down from $7.2 in the March quarter last year and its peak of $7.6 between April and June, according to RedSeer.
This is identical to the trend seen in the larger digital payments ecosystem which includes debit and credit card, internet banking (through real time gross settlement and national electronic funds transfer), pre-paid payment instruments like mobile wallets and UPI (universal payments interface).
In April, total value of digital transactions declined 26.8% to ₹109.58 lakh crore, while the number of transactions fell 5.6% to 843.5 million, over March, according to provisional data from Reserve Bank of India.