BHIM UPI goes global

News:Recently,to internationalize the BHIM UPI a pilot demo was conducted in Singapore with a live transaction at a merchant terminal at the FinTech Festival 2019. 

Facts:

• The project is being jointly developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Singapore’s Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS). 
• This QR code-based system would allow anyone with a BHIM app to scan Singapore Quick Response Code(SGQR) at NETS terminals in Singapore for payments.
• The project is targeted to go fully live by February 2020 and cover thousands of terminals in Singapore after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) approval. 
• Further,by February 2020,it is also expected that all RuPay cards, including domestic ones will be acceptable in Singapore.

Additional information:

About BHIM:

• Bharat Interface for Money(BHIM) is Unified Payments Interface(UPI) based payment interface application that allows real time fund transfer
• The app has been launched in 2016.It was developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

About UPI:

• Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application of any participating bank.
• The interface has been developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• It merges several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. 

About National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI):

• NPCI is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
• It is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 for creating a robust Payment and Settlement Infrastructure in India.