Move aims to foster trade, travel, and remittances
To step up cross-border payments and remittance flows, the Reserve Bank of India and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have announced a project to link their respective fast payment systems — Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow. The linked interface is expected to be operationalized by July 22.
The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of the two fast payment systems to make instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis, without a need to get onboarded onto the other payment system.
The linkage is a significant milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore, and closely aligns with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments.
The linkage builds upon the earlier efforts of NPCI International Private Limited (NIPL) and Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) to foster cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes between India and Singapore and will further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries. This initiative is also in line with RBI’s vision of reviewing corridors and charges for inbound cross-border remittances outlined in the Payment Systems Vision Document 2019-21.
