Amid the pandemic that’s led to most countries across the world announcing some form of a lockdown, payment players believe that digital transactions are the way ahead.

While payments major PayPal said May 1 was the highest transaction day ever in its history, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) noted that UPI payments are expected to rise in the coming months.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, NPCI COO Praveena Rai said it is working on enabling international payments on UPI and that the instances of frauds have also come down. “It is a work in progress. We hope to soon make an announcement on first leg of corridor…Cross-border leg needs to get enabled and once done people can start getting inward remittances,” she said.

She further said NPCI has also been receiving enquiries from some States and smart cities to make UPI payments so that people don’t have to carry wallets when they step out.

Rise in customer base

Meanwhile, addressing a separate media briefing on risk and security, PayPal said it anticipates 1.5 crore to 2 crore active customers in the second quarter of the year. It currently has an active used base of 30 crore users.

Guru Bhat, V-P, Customer Success Platform, GM PayPal India, noted that more users are likely to accept and continue using digital payments as a safety precaution to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

“In demonetisation, the behavioural change and shift towards digital payments was due to lack of availability of cash. In this case, it is not due to a mere inconvenience,” he said, while adding that the use of cash will not get eliminated.

Sri Shivananda, SVP and CTO, PayPal, also pointed out that currency notes or cards extend the physical touch, which is being questioned in the pandemic.

NPCI data had revealed that digital payments had declined in April amid the national lockdown, with Aadhaar enabled Payment Systems being the only exception where volumes surged after cash transfers by the government.

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