Amidst festival season sales and opening up of the economy, UPI transactions touched a record high at ₹7.71 lakh crore in value terms in October.
This was a new record for UPI, which is fast becoming the most popular choice for digital payments. It was a 56 per cent jump from ₹6.54 lakh crore in transaction value recorded in September.
According to data released by National Payments Corporation of India on Monday, the number of transactions on the Unified Payments Interface platform amounted to 421 crore in October, compared to 365 crore in September.
Daily payments through UPI were averaging between ₹25,000 crore to ₹30,000 crore in October.
The Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) also scaled a new high in October and processed 43.06 crore transactions worth ₹3.7 lakh crore. It had processed 38.48 crore transactions amounting to ₹3.24 lakh crore in September.
Meanwhile, there were 21.42 crore transactions via the NETC FASTags totalling ₹3,356.74 crore in October compared to 19.36 crore transactions worth ₹3,009.3 crore in September.
Mobile payments are now growing faster than card payments and are clocking over $1 trillion in annualised value in 2021, the 2021 India Mobile Payments Market Report by S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Financial Institutions Research team had said.
On 12 October 2021, banks in Agartala and Kolkata will remain shut due to Durga Puja (Maha Saptami). Image: Reuters
Bank Holidays in October: As the festive season has started, banks in India will remain closed for up to 14 days, starting from today in October 2021, including second and fourth Saturdays, and Sundays. Apart from the weekly offs, banks will not be closed for all 14 days for all states as these are state-specific holidays for different occasions. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has categorised holidays under three categories — Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act; Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real-Time Gross Settlement Holiday; and Banks’ Closing of Accounts. The list of holidays given below has been notified by RBI.
Festive Holidays in October 2021
12 October 2021 – Durga Puja (Maha Saptami) 13 October 2021 – Durga Puja (Maha Ashtami) 14 October 2021 – Durga Puja/Dussehra (Maha Navami)/Ayutha Pooja 15 October 2021 – Durga Puja/Dasara/Dusshera (Vijaya Dashmi) 16 October 2021 – Durga Puja (Dasain) 18 October 2021 – Kati Bihu 19 October 2021 – Id-E-Milad/Eid-e-Miladunnabi/Milad-i-Sherif (Prophet Mohammad’s Birthday)/Baravafat 20 October 2021 – Maharishi Valmiki’s Birthday/Lakshmi Puja/Id-E-Milad 22 October 2021 – Friday following Eid-i-Milad-ul-Nabi 26 October 2021 – Accession Day
On 12 October 2021, banks in Agartala and Kolkata will remain shut due to Durga Puja (Maha Saptami). On the next day, banks in Agartala, Bhubaneswar, Gangtok, Guwahati, Imphal, Kolkata, Patna, and Ranchi will observe a holiday on account of Durga Puja (Maha Ashtami). On 14 October, banks across Agartala, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gangtok, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Shillong, and Thiruvananthapuram will be closed for Durga Puja/Dussehra (Maha Navami)/Ayutha Pooja.
On 15 October 2021, except for Imphal and Shimal, banks across the country will remain closed for Durga Puja/Dasara/Dusshera (Vijaya Dashmi). Only banks in Gangtok will remain closed on 16 October to observe Durga Puja (Dasain). On 18 October, banks in Guwahati will be closed; on 19 October, banks in Ahmedabad, Belapur, Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram will remain shut for Id-E-Milad/Eid-e-Miladunnabi/Milad-i-Sherif. Banks in Agartala, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Shimla, will be closed on 20 October for Maharishi Valmiki’s Birthday. On 22 and 26 October, banks in Jammu and Srinagar will remain closed for Eid-i-Milad-ul-Nabi, and Accession Day, respectively.
Weekend Bank Holidays in October 2021
17 October 2021 – Sunday 23 October 2021 – 4th Saturday 24 October 2021 – Sunday 31 October 2021 – Sunday
All the public and private sector banks in India remain closed on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month, along with a weekly holiday on Sunday. Even as banks will remain shut on the above-mentioned days, customers can avail net banking and other online services. Mobile and internet banking will also remain operational.
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