The National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) Unified Payments Interface (UPI) crossed $100 billion in a month for the first time in October, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), further cementing its position as India’s most popular digital payments system. A whopping 4.2 billion UPI transactions amounting to Rs 7.71 lakh crore (about $103 billion) were clocked in the month, marking all-time highs on both counts for the five-year-old payments channel.

The growth in October was fueled by the shopping spree marking the beginning of the festival season and e-commerce sales. With higher vaccination rates and further relaxation of norms, people also started stepping out for purchases more often in October.

UPI has passed several significant milestones since its launch in 2016. It crossed a billion transactions for the first time in October 2019, and the next billion came in under a year. Since the start of 2021, monthly transaction value has grown by close to 79% from Rs 4.31 lakh crore in January. The number of transactions, meanwhile, have increased by more than 83% from 230 crore in January.

Meanwhile, other modes of digital payments also recorded a sharp surge in October. Immediate Payments Service (IMPS) also touched an all-time high both in terms of number and value of transactions. It clocked 430.67 million transactions worth Rs 3.70 trillion in the month.