The silicone valley of India, Bangalore has come at the top list of Indian cities in terms of highest digital transactions in the year 2022, a report by French payment and transactional services firm WORLDLINE has said. The city  recorded 29 million transaction worth Rs.6500 crore in 2022.

Mumbai comes in second with 18.7 million transactions totaling Rs. 4950 crore, followed by Delhi with 19.6 million transactions totaling Rs. 5000 crore. As per report, Pune comes in at number four with 15 million digital transactions worth Rs. 3280 crore, followed by Chennai with 14.3 million transactions for Rs. 3,550 crore.

Payment methods including UPI, debit and credit cards, prepaid payment instruments - mobile, and prepaid cards handled 87.92 billion transactions worth Rs. 149.5 trillion, according to the research titled "India Digital Payments Annual Report."

The report said, UPI processed over 74.05 billion transactions worth a total of Rs. 126 trillion. In Year 2022 compared to Year 2021, it reported a 91 percent increase in volume and a more than 76 percent increase in value in terms of transactions.

The study reveals that frequently visited physical merchant categories like grocery stores, restaurants, clothing and apparel, pharmacies and medical, hotels, jewellery retail, specialty retail, home appliances, and department stores together accounted for over 43% in terms of volume and 40% in terms of value.

E-commerce (shopping for products and services online), gaming, utility, and financial services accounted for over 85% of transaction volume and 25% of transaction value. The remaining 15 percent and 75 percent in terms of volume and value, respectively, are contributed by the education, travel, and hospitality sectors.

Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, and Punjab were the top 10 states and the Union Territory with the greatest transactions at physical contact points in 2022 for Worldline India.

In contrast, the top 10 cities in 2022 for Worldline India in terms of the volume of transactions at physical contact points were Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, and Coimbatore.

Credit card volume and value were 2.76 billion and Rs. 13.12 trillion, respectively, when we talk about debit and credit cards. At point of sale, there were 1.47 billion credit card transactions, compared to 1.29 billion in e-commerce. In terms of value, consumers used credit cards to make POS transactions worth Rs. 5.1 trillion and e-commerce purchases for Rs. 8.1 trillion in 2022.

The volume and dollar amount of debit card transactions were 3.64 billion and Rs. 7.4 trillion, respectively. POS transactions made up 2.38 billion of the overall amount of debit card transactions, while e-commerce transactions made up 1.26 billion. Value-wise, POS terminals processed 4.85 trillion rupees worth of transactions, while debit cards processed 2.56 trillion rupees worth of transactions in e-commerce.

The survey also indicated that there would be 1.02 billion credit and debit cards in use worldwide by the end of 2022.  Prepaid payment instruments were 16.23 billion by December 2022, of which 13.34 billion were wallets and 288.8 million were cards.

According to the Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU), in 2022, there were 985.7 million transactions worth Rs. 1.70 trillion, representing an increase of 83 percent and 75 percent in volume and value, respectively, over the previous year.

AePS transactions recorded a sizable volume of over 2.63 billion transactions in volume and Rs.3.42 trillion in value in terms of the Aadhar enabled payment service. Aadhaar authentication is used in AePS, a bank-led platform that enables online interoperable financial inclusion transactions at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business Correspondent of any bank.

The popularity of digital payments continued to grow in 2022, with UPI setting the pace, according to the research. In 2022, popular payment methods including UPI, cards, and prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) had already processed more than Rs. 149.5 trillion in digital transactions. Worldline stated in its report that it will keep working with its merchants, partner banks, fintechs, and e-commerce businesses in 2023 and beyond and invest in the technology and infrastructure required to create a more open and inclusive financial ecosystem.