India's UPI, Singapore's PayNow is now ‘integrated’: What it means

The linkage of these two payment systems would enable residents of both countries in the faster and cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong witnessed the launch of cross-border connectivity between the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore on Tuesday.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) managing director Ravi Menon will launch the cross-border connectivity, Union finance ministry said.

India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing ecosystems for fintech innovation. Prime Minister Modi's visionary leadership has been instrumental in driving globalisation of India's best-in-class digital payment infrastructure, it said.

"A key emphasis of the Prime Minister has been on ensuring that the benefits of UPI are not limited to India only, but other countries too benefit from it," it said.

The linkage of these two payment systems would enable residents of both countries in the faster and cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances, it added.

As of now, remittance to India is at least 1 billion Singapore Dollars and India to Singapore will be 200-300 million Singapore Dollars.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore linkage is a "milestone initiative".

"As India's 1st first cross-border real-time payment partner, this milestone initiative reflects the deep trust between both countries and will take the bilateral relationship to even greater heights. We look forward to continue to be part of India's digital transformation journey," said Simon Wong.

The linkage of these two payment systems will enable residents of both countries to transfer cross-border remittances faster and more cost-efficient.

This integration will also help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers and students through instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa.

Singapore already has such a tie-up with Indonesia's PromPay to facilitate seamless cross-border transfers.

"The UPI-PayNow 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," according to RBI.

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.

UPI is India's mobile based, 'fast payment' system that facilitates customers to make round the clock payments instantly using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) created by the customer.

PayNow is the fast payment system of Singapore which enables peer-to-peer funds transfer service, available to retail customers through participating banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NFIs) in Singapore.

It enables users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another in Singapore by using just their mobile number, Singapore NRIC/FIN, or VPA.