The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore were virtually launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore Premier Lee Hsien Loong.
A brief about Indians can now transfer money through UPI to & from Singapore
Shaktikanta Das, governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, conducted cross-border transactions in real time using their respective cell phones.
A cross-border person-to-person (P2P) payment option has been introduced for the first time in Singapore.
According to the RBI, the UPI-PayNow integration will make cross-border money transfers easy, safe, quick, and affordable for all users of the two payment systems in either nation.
Only the UPI-id, mobile number are required to transfer money to and from India from bank accounts or e-wallets or Virtual Payment Address (VPA), according to the RBI.
“In the beginning, outgoing remittances will be facilitated by State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, and ICICI Bank, while incoming remittances will be facilitated by Axis Bank and DBS India. DBS-Singapore and Liquid Group will provide the service to users in Singapore (a non-bank financial institution). Over time, more banks will be linked to the system “declared the central bank of India.
Clients of the partnering banks can send money overseas to Singapore through their online banking or mobile banking services. An Indian user has a daily transfer limit of 60,000 rupees. The system will show the amount in both currencies at the time of the transaction for the user’s convenience.
The government claims that this will benefit the Indian diaspora in Singapore, particularly migrant workers and students, as well as bring the advantages of digitalization and fintech to the average person through quick and inexpensive money transfers from Singapore to India and vice versa.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Payment System Operators of both countries, namely NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Banking Computer Services Pte Ltd. (BCS), as well as participating banks and non-bank financial institutions, are credited with creating the UPI-PayNow linkage.
This interlinkage will be an important milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore, and it is in line with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of promoting faster, less expensive, and more transparent cross-border payments.
The linkage happens at a time when certain merchant establishments in Singapore already accept UPI payments through QR codes. PhonePe was the first fintech app to allow “UPI international” payments earlier this month. The digital payments company, which is owned by Walmart, offers foreign merchant locations with local QR codes in the U.A.E., Singapore, Nepal, and Bhutan. Users may now make payments in foreign currency directly from their Indian bank, just like they can with foreign debit cards, according to the business.
In order to make RuPay, UPI, and BHIM acceptable in other nations, like Singapore and the U.A.E., India is in talks with a number of them, including Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman last year.
