By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – PwC’s Indian Payments Handbook 2025-2030 said on Wednesday that India’s digital payments landscape is poised for a transformative leap, with transactions expected to surge threefold over the next 5 years.
The total volume of digital payments is projected to rise from 206 billion in FY25 to 617 billion by FY30, while the value is set to expand from Rs 299 trillion to Rs 907 trillion, it added.
The influence of AI is another dominant theme, as 73% of respondents expect Gen AI and Agentic AI to significantly impact the payments landscape.
PwC said that this growth is the Unified Payments Interface which continues to dominate India’s retail payments ecosystem, accounted for 90% of total transaction volumes, the report highlighted.
PwC stressed that with innovations such as biometric authentication, IoT-enabled transactions, and cross-border payments, UPI is on course to hit 1 billion transactions per day by FY28.
It cautioned that signs of saturation are emerging, necessitating new use cases and infrastructure enhancements to sustain momentum.
Credit cards are strong growth engine, with transaction volumes and values projected to rise at 21.7% and 20.8% CAGR, respectively.
The linking of RuPay credit cards with UPI, increasing co-branded partnerships, and the potential entry of NBFCs into card issuance are reshaping consumer credit behavior.
In contrast, debit card usage continues to decline, largely due to UPI’s convenience and lack of usage incentives.
PwC’s Indian Payments Handbook also noted that the merchant acquiring space is witnessing rapid digitisation, driven by QR codes and soundboxes, especially in Tier 2-4 cities. Real-time settlements and AI-powered fraud detection tools are deepening digital adoption among merchants.
PwC noted that platforms like Bharat Connect (earlier BBPS) and FASTag are diversifying rapidly.
Bharat Connect has expanded into sectors such as healthcare, education, and housing societies, while FASTag is moving beyond tolls into parking and fuel payments.
India’s position as the world’s top remittance recipient continues to strengthen, backed by cross-border UPI corridors and RBI’s Payment Aggregator–Cross Border (PA-CB) licences.
PwC highlighted several emerging technologies shaping the sector’s next phase, including agentic AI, distributed ledger technology, and biometric security, supported by RBI’s regulatory innovations such as the PRAVAAH portal, Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) framework, and offline payment aggregator guidelines.
The report concluded that India’s payments evolution is now less about scale and more about value creation.
“The next five years will be defined by data-driven, customer-centric innovation,” it said.
PwC predicted a shift toward a resilient, inclusive, and globally connected payments ecosystem.
