The number of financial transactions undertaken using RTGS increased by 5.7% during the 2020-21 with value amounting to Rs 1,056 trillion, according to the RBI’s Annual Report for 2020-21 released on 27 May. While the number of transactions increased, there has been a decline of 19.5% in value compared to the previous year, which was mainly on account of reduction in large value transactions of corporates in line with slowdown in economic activity. At the end of March 2021, the RTGS facility was available through 1,75,947 branches of 227 banks. On the other hand, transactions through NEFT system rose by 12.7% during the year. At the end of March 2021, the NEFT facility was available through 1,75,283 branches of 225 banks. The report also said during 2020-21, credit and debit card payment transactions decreased by 19% and 20.6%, respectively, with a decrease in value of credit card transactions by 13.7% and debit card transactions by 5.9 %. Prepaid Payment Instruments recorded a yoy contraction by 7.4 % as against a growth of 15.7 % a year ago. The number of transactions at PoS terminals increased by 6.5 % to 4.72 million and Bharat Quick Response (BQR) codes deployed increased by 76.0 % to 3.57 million. ATMs marginally increased by 2.0 % to 238,000.
