Digital payments rise 12.6% at March-end 2024: RBI

Digital payments across the country registered a 12.6% on-year rise as on March 31, 2024, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) index that measures the adoption of online transactions.

RBI's Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) stood at 445.5 at the end of March 2024 compared to 418.77 in September 2023 and 395.57 in March 2023.

"The RBI-DPI index has increased across all parameters driven by significant growth in payment performance and payment infrastructure across the country over the period, RBI said in a statement on Friday.

The central bank announced the construction of a composite RBI-DPI in March 2018 as a base to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.

The index comprises five broad parameters that enable the measurement of the deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different periods.

These parameters are Payment Enablers (weightage 25%); Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors (10%); Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors (15%); Payment Performance (45%); and Consumer Centricity (5%).

The index is published on a semi-annual basis from March 2021 onwards with a lag of four months.