On 8 November 2016 when demonetisation was announced, nobody knew what was in store. A lot has changed since then. Experts told Mint how our money life has changed over the last year.
Shanti Ekambaram, president-consumer banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
During demonetisation, cash had gone out of the system. Digital transactions spiked because that was the only (option). The real uptick was in debit and credit card transactions. From March 2017, cash started coming into the system and in the last three months it is back to business as usual in the business to customer segment. People moved to debit and credit card transactions using mobile apps and net banking and hence there was a big spike. But now that is history. I think credit card has continued to see an increase. Even people who didn’t have credit card started opting for it. Government brought platform changes in the form of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and Bharat QR (quick response) code. Year-on-year, transactions have since increased in both types of payments options. From customer behaviour, they are using all mediums. Over the next 1 year, digital adoption will continue to increase. We have to help customers adopt, which we as a bank continue to do. There are multiple digital payment options available right now.
