Post-demonetisation bank apps grow faster than e-wallets

In the bank versus e-wallets sweepstakes, lenders have now gained lost ground.

As of February , the number of transactions put across through e-wallets have dropped 10% month-on-month in February , while banks have gained 20% in the same period, over a larger base.

The RBI data shows that eight e-wallets, including Paytm, Mobikwik, Freecharge, saw a loss in their market share after November 8, 2016, when demonetisation was announced.

E-wallets, which had a market share of 34% of total prepaid payment instruments (PPI) transactions (169.3 million) in December, saw a dip to 33% in January and then a sharp fall to 29% in February.

The e-wallets saw maximum growth of 50% to 88 million transactions in December, and then fell 1% in January, before falling another 10% in February to 78 million.

However, bank wallets, prepaid cards and vouchers saw a growth of 57% in December to 173 million and post-demonetisation saw growth of 20% to 208.5 million in January.