It's been six years since UPI (Unified Payments Interface) was introduced as a payment system in India.?
During this period, not only has it become a revolution in the financial lives of Indians, but in fact, it is being adopted by other countries as well. Especially this year, India¡¯s finance ministry, RBI and NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) have inked deals with multiple countries to promote UPI adoption abroad.
Eager to know which all countries are using or are about to begin using UPI? Read on as we unfold the same.
In July 2021, Bhutan became the first country to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment, and the first country in our immediate neighbourhood to accept mobile-based payments through the BHIM App.?In its press release, NPCI mentioned that NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the International armof the National Payment Corporation of India and the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan, partnered for enabling and implementing BHIM UPI QR-based payments in Bhutan.
Earlier this year in March, Nepal too deployed India¡¯s UPI payment system. A month before that, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of NPCI, had mentioned in a press release that it joined hands with Gateway Payments Service Pvt Ltd, authorized Payment System Operators in Nepal, and Manam Infotech Private Limited to deploy UPI in Nepal for the larger Digital Public Good and to bolster interoperable real-time Person to person (P2P) and Merchant payment transactions (P2M) in Nepal.?
It mentioned that this collaboration will enable the last-mile consumers in Nepal to reap the benefits of an open interoperable payments system driving immediate payment transfers between bank accounts and merchant payments in real time. It will also enable the way forward for real-time cross-border P2P remittances between Nepal and India
In October 2022, Oman formally joined many other nations in adopting UPI for digital transactions across platforms. This comes after New Delhi and Muscat reached a consensus to expand the Indian digital payment ecosystem to the gulf region. A formal agreement in this regard was signed between the NPCI and the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) last week.?
In April 2022, NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the International arm of the National Payment Corporation of India, announced that BHIM UPI has been made live at NEOPAY terminals, across the UAE. This initiative will empower millions of Indians who travel to the UAE, to safely and conveniently make payments using BHIM UPI. NIPL and NEOPAY, the payment subsidiary of Mashreq bank, partnered last year to create the acceptance infrastructure in the UAE.?
So, with the acceptance of BHIM UPI in the UAE, Indian tourists can now make seamless payments through BHIM UPI across NEOPAY-enabled shops and merchant stores.?
In June 2022, NIPL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with France-based payments solution provider Lyra Network, Union Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced it during his France visit for the Viva Technology 2022 event.
However, the intricacies of how UPI will operate in France are yet to be clearly stated.
NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of NPCI had last year partnered with Liquid Group, a 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.
Merchantrade Asia Sdn. Bhd., which is a leading fintech company and Malaysia¡¯s largest Money Services Business operator and fast-growing e-Money issuer, had come together with? NPCI International to offer real-time remittances to India through the UPI Platform last year.
More than a year after the Monetary Authority of Singapore?announced that Singapore¡¯s PayNow and India¡¯s UPI will link in 2022, the much-awaited cross-border payment project between India and Singapore will be launched very soon. As per ET, RBI is waiting for PM Modi to launch the project.
In August 2022, it was announced that UPI will foray into the United Kingdom market starting with QR code-based transactions.
The NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has already forged a partnership with payments solutions provider PayXpert (a pioneer in the payment industry since 2009) to internationalize the acceptance of its payment solutions in the U.K. As per NPCI,s press release, this collaboration will make the Indian payment solutions available in the UK on all PayXpert¡¯s android point-of-sale (POS) devices for in-store payments, starting with UPI-based QR code payments and later integrating the possibility for RuPay card payments.?
Also Read:?RBI Proposes Linking Credit Cards To?UPI
Also, in July 2022, the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnav, said that India is in talks with 30 countries regarding UPI, and three countries have already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). These were France, the UAE and Singapore.
Last month, ?Worldline, a global leader in payments services, joined forces with NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to expand the acceptance of Indian payment means across Europe.
As part of the partnership inked in October 2022, Worldline will bring more convenience for Indian customers in the European markets by allowing merchants¡¯ point-of-sale (POS) systems to accept payments from UPI,? an instant real-time payment system, as well as RuPay, NPCI¡¯s proprietary card payment network solution. This will result in a multitude of customer-related merchant benefits due to an increase in footfall and spending from Indian tourists, as per the press release.
Facilitated via Worldline QR, the company¡¯s universal product for the acceptance of all QR-based payments, the first target markets for NIPL are set to include BENELUX and Switzerland with further plans for expansion, as Worldline QR is rolled out in more European countries.
It also mentioned that India is one of the most important tourist markets for Europe with an estimated 10 million Indians travelling to the region each year prior to the pandemic, according to Schengen Visa. Now, as the impacts of COVID-19 begin to subside, that number is expected to significantly increase.
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