New Delhi, Oct 8 (NationPress) A significant 65 percent of fintech leaders have recognized credit cards as the primary segment driving the upcoming transformation in India's fintech and payments sector, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The study conducted by PwC India surveyed 175 industry leaders, with over 90 percent expressing confidence in the growth potential of credit cards.

Furthermore, the survey indicated that 73 percent of participants anticipate that Gen AI and Agentic AI will profoundly influence the payments landscape. Almost 50 percent believe that Agentic AI and biometric authentication will revolutionize the user experience in digital payments.

Credit card usage has surpassed 100 million in FY24 and is expected to reach approximately 200 million by FY30, driven by strong transaction growth resulting from product innovation and broader adoption, the report stated. In contrast, debit card usage continues to decline as consumers show a growing preference for UPI and credit cards.

PwC projected that overall digital transaction volumes could nearly triple by FY30, fueled by innovations across the ecosystem, increased credit penetration, regulatory support, adoption of new technologies, and changing consumer behavior.

"India's payments ecosystem is entering a new era of maturity and integration. Over the next five years, we anticipate ongoing innovation and growth of UPI, robust credit expansion, and greater convergence of payments with lending, insurance, and wealth management. The challenge will be to balance innovation and scalability with interoperability, security, and inclusion to build a future-ready digital payments economy," stated Mihir Gandhi, Partner and Leader - Payments Transformation and Fintech at PwC India.

UPI comprised 90 percent of retail digital payment volumes in FY24–25, with growth driven by offline adoption, interoperability, credit-linked use cases, and emerging opportunities like cross-border transactions.

Moreover, 70 percent of respondents highlighted tokenization and RuPay–UPI linkage as crucial enablers, while 66 percent considered hyper-personalization, streamlined authentication, and credit on UPI as essential success factors.