Nearly one-and-a-half months after demonetisation, banks are seeing a huge spike in non-cash transactions.
Sources said this might give the Reserve Bank of India probable room to reduce circulation of currency notes.
While official figures on the rise of non-cash transactions to the share of total transactions are not yet available, a senior official of a PSU lender expects the current ratio at nearly 25 per cent.
Previously (till November 8), out of every 100 transactions made at banks, not more than 10 used to be through alternate formats. Now, this number could be as high as 20-25.
As Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Founder, Managing Director and CEO of Bandhan Bank, pointed out, such non-cash transactions at his bank have seen a near 50 per cent growth. From around 10 out of 100, the number has risen to approximately 15 till earlier this month.
“Initially, the digital options were slow to take off. But now we are witnessing a spurt in mobile and Internet banking,” he told BusinessLine .
PSU lender United Bank of India (UBI) claims there has been a 90 per cent growth in non-cash transactions. “The growth has come mostly from metro and urban centres,” Pawan Bajaj, MD and CEO of the Kolkata-based lender, pointed out.
Digital options grow While United Payment Interface (UPI) is fast gaining ground, the driver for banks at present seem to be their e-wallet options. This apart, instances of increased mobile and Internet banking are also being seen.
While for UBI there has been a 20 per cent growth in Internet banking, its wallet service has seen a 110 per cent growth. Instances of increased debit card usage (swipes on various point of sale machines) have gone up by 185 per cent. Usage of UPI (a recent addition to its portfolio) has seen a massive growth.
UCO Bank too has similar numbers. According to Ravi Krishan Takkar, MD & CEO of the bank, there has been a “substantial” rise with 400 per cent growth through UPI; and a 250 per cent jump in mobile banking. Internet banking has seen a 75 per cent upward movement.
The country’s largest PSU lender, the State Bank of India (SBI) claims that there has been a near 80 per cent growth in Internet banking in the States of West Bengal and Sikkim and in the Union Territory of Andaman.
Merchant registrations for SBI Buddy —– its e-wallet — has also gone up between December 1 and 17; downloads of the e-wallet were close to 13,000 (in the region).
The country’s largest private bank ICICI Bank says it is witnessing increased usage of the digital option (Internet, iMobile and Pockets – its e-wallet). “New customer on-boarded daily continue to be higher, nearly twice, over regular day activations. Mobile transactions are also significantly higher,” a spokesperson said.
For ICICI Bank, debit card transactions grew close to double in the past few weeks, (compared to regular volumes) while credit card transactions grew 40 per cent.
“A very large number of customers have used debit cards at POS transactions in the past couple of weeks for the first time,” the spokesperson further pointed out.