Paytm UPI transaction volume down 9% in April, records third consecutive month of slump, says report

Leading fintech player Paytm marked a third consecutive month of decline in terms of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in April 2024, Business Standard reported.

Data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed Paytm saw a 9 per cent downturn in UPI volume for the month, recording 1,117.13 million transactions in April, compared to 1,230.04 million transactions in March this year, it added.

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Market share contracts

Consequently, Paytm's market share within the UPI applications’ ecosystem contracted for the third consecutive month — to 8.4 per cent in April, down from 10.8 per cent in February and 9.13 per cent in March, as per the report.

However, despite the decline, Paytm maintained its position as the third largest player in the UPI ecosystem due to the significantly smaller scale of other players. Cred, for example, took the fourth spot, processing 138.46 million transactions in April, a fraction of Paytm's volume, it added.

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Top players dominate

PhonePe and Google Pay remain the top two players, processing 6,500 million and 5,027.3 million transactions, respectively, in April. Their combined share in overall transactions stood at 86.6 per cent, the report noted.

PhonePe's share rose from 47.3 per cent to 48.8 per cent, while Google Pay's increased from 36.7 per cent to 37.8 per cent between February and April, it said.

Both — Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay's gains followed regulatory actions against Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Paytm users migrated to new payment service provider (PSP) bank handles with State Bank of India (SBI), Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and YES Bank. As such, the players' transaction volume is expected to decline further as more users migrate to authorised PSP banks.