High volumes, multiple hops push up digital payment failures

Transaction failures have become far more frequent in India’s digital payments ecosystem over the last few months than they have been historically. While the sudden surge in digital usage during the Covid scare was an important factor, industry executives said the burgeoning number of entities in the market whose systems are not always speaking to each other may also have played a part.

As the volume of transactions through digital channels surged, system outages across banks became almost a monthly feature last year. According to data from Downdetector.in, the three largest banks in the digital payments system together saw 61 instances of outages between March 2020 and so far in February 2021. State Bank of India (SBI) saw the maximum number of outages – 43 – followed by ICICI Bank (12) and HDFC Bank (6).

In an emailed response to FE’s queries, an ICICI Bank spokesperson said, “We have invested in robust infrastructure to execute the digital transactions of our customers.