India’s Digital Payments System More Evolved Than Than That Of UK, China And Japan: Report

India’s digital payments system is more evolved than that of the United Kingdom, China and Japan, a report by United States-based Fidelity Information Services (FIS) has revealed, according to Mint.

The report, which ranked digital payments systems in 25 countries on parameters such as round-the-clock availability, adoption, and immediacy of payments, said India’s system was the most evolved.

The report, titled Flavors of Fast, used the Faster Payments Innovation Index (FPII) created in 2014 for evaluation, which ranked different payments systems on a scale of 1-5. While fast payments systems were ranked on level 1, those with desirable features such as universal access and 24x7 availability were ranked on level 3. Systems with advanced features for customer value were ranked on level 5.

India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), the basic platform for mobile payments in the country launched by National Payments Corporation in 2010, was the only system across the world performing at level 5, the report revealed. It was the most evolved payments system among the 25 systems evaluated in the report.

“Out of the countries assessed, Taiwan was at level 1, Mexico, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, Iceland, China, Korea & Sri Lanka were assessed at level 2. Level 3 was Chile, Sweden, South Africa, Bahrain, Japan, Level 4 countries were Spain, Kenya, Poland, Finland, UK, Singapore, Denmark Switzerland and Thailand. India’s IMPS was the only system across the world performing at level 5,” said FIS Regional Managing Director for India and South Asia, Ramaswamy Venkatachalam, in an email to Mint.

The FIS report also revealed the popularity of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in August 2016. UPI grew by over 150 per cent in October and recorded 76.8 million transactions against 30.8 million in the previous month, according to the Economic Times.