[ad_1]
The Indian government has been trying to take its digital payment systems like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to other countries to enable seamless cross-border transactions. This is being done to lower the cost of fund transfers and remittance payments.
On Friday, PM Narendra Modi said that India’s most successful payments system UPI will be used in France. Modi said very soon Indian tourists will be able to make rupee payments using UPI from atop the Eiffel Tower.
“India and France have agreed to use UPI in France. In the coming days, it will begin from the Eiffel Tower, which means Indian tourists will now be able to pay in rupees,” PM Modi said.
Allowing the UPI payment system in France will open up huge opportunities in the way Indians can spend there. UPI can eliminate the use of forex cards and also the need to carry cash to spend.
In January this year, the Centre said that non-resident Indians (NRIs) from 10 countries can use UPI to send and receive money if their domestic bank accounts are linked to their phone numbers abroad.
The list of countries included Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, US, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI), which is the nodal body for UPI, said members participating in UPI should ensure that only those accounts complying with the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) can use this facility.
Here’s a look at India’s UPI linkages with other countries around the world.
UPI Global
Under the UPI global initiative, NPCI said that all stakeholders –member banks, third party application providers and other payment providers – can offer UPI Global by December 31, 2021.
Bhutan
In July 2021, Bhutan was the first country to allow UPI transactions through BHIM App.
In a press statement, NPCI mentioned that NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), its global arm, and the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan, partnered for enabling and implementing BHIM UPI QR-based payments in Bhutan. BHIM stands for Bharat Interface for Money. It is an app developed by the NPCI to enable mobile payments.
After India assumed the G20 Presidency in December 2022, the RBI and NPCI in February launched ‘UPI One World’ for foreign nationals visiting the country.
Nepal
Nepal adopted UPI for digital transactions in March 2022. In Nepal, NIPL signed a deal with Gateway Payments Service Pvt Ltd, the authorised payment system operators there, and Manam Infotech Private Limited to deploy UPI for interoperable real-time person-to-person (P2P) and merchant-payment transactions.
PhonePe became the first Indian fintech firm to support cross-border UPI payments. Users of PhonePe can pay through their Indian bank accounts to merchants at merchant outlets or points-of-sale in the UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal, and Bhutan. Thereafter, Paytm also announced that it will launch support for UPI Global payments.
Oman
In October 2022, Oman also joined hands with NPCI to link UPI to its payment system. A formal agreement in this regard was signed between the NPCI and the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) in November.
UAE
In April 2022, NIPL announced that BHIM UPI was made live at NEOPAY terminals, the payment subsidiary of Mashreq bank, across the UAE, which aimed at empowering millions of Indians who travel to the UAE to safely and conveniently make payments using BHIM UPI.
Malaysia
Along the same lines, NIPL signed a deal with Liquid Group, which is the cross-border digital payments provider, to enable QR-based UPI payments’ acceptance in 10 countries across north and southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.
For Malaysia in particular, NIPL tied up with Merchantrade Asia Sdn. Bhd., the leading fintech company and Malaysia’s largest Money Services Business operator, to offer real-time remittances to India through the UPI platform.
United Kingdom
United Kingdom and India in August 2022 said that they would collaborate on QR code-based transactions. For this, NIPL tied up with payments solutions provider PayXpert to build a seamless payment solutions platform in the UK.
Under the agreement, PayXpert agreed to make the Indian payment solutions available in the UK on all its Android point-of-sale (POS) devices for in-store payments. This would include UPI-based QR code payments and later integrate the possibility of RuPay card payments.
India-Singapore linkage
In February 2023, India’s UPI formally collaborated with its equivalent network in Singapore called PayNow to enable faster remittances between the two countries at a competitive rate.
Under the deal, users of UPI and PayNow can instantly make low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without a need to get on board the other payment system.
Customers of the participating banks can send money across borders to Singapore via the bank’s internet banking or mobile banking app. An Indian user can initially send up to Rs 60,000 in one day (equivalent to around SGD 1,000), the Reserve Bank of India said in a note.
According to the RBI press release, “To begin with, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, and ICICI Bank will facilitate both inward and outward remittances while Axis Bank and DBS India will facilitate inward remittances. For Singapore users, the service will be made available through DBS-Singapore and Liquid Group (a non-bank financial institution). More banks will be included in the linkage over time.”
Indian banks that can send remittances through the UPI-PayNow interlinkage are ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and State Bank of India.
Europe
In October 2022, Worldline, a global leader in payments services, tied up with NIPL to expand the acceptance of Indian payment means across Europe.
In a statement, NPCI and Worldline said: “Facilitated via Worldline QR, the company’s universal product for the acceptance of all QR-based payments, the first target markets for NIPL (NPCI International Payments Ltd) are set to include BENELUX (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) and Switzerland with further plans for expansion, as Worldline QR is rolled out in more European countries.”
Launched in 2016, Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, is India’s mobile-based fast payment system, which facilitates customers to make round-the-clock payments instantly, using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) created by the customer.
It supports both Person-to-Person (P2P) and Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payments and it also enables a user to send or receive money.
Also read: After Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay also introduces UPI Lite for faster transactions under Rs 200
Also read: Paytm partners with Shriram Finance to strengthen its loan distribution biz
[ad_2]
Source link