India’s UPI and Singapore’s PayNow are now integrated: What it means, who benefits

Source: The post is based on the article “India’s UPI and Singapore’s PayNow are now integrated: What it means, who benefits” published in Indian Express on 22nd February 2023

What is the News?

India’s real-time retail payment system Unified Payments Interface(UPI) has been integrated with Singapore’s PayNow to enable faster remittances between the two countries at a competitive rate.

What is UPI?

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What is PayNow?

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

It allows 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 National Registration Identity Card (NRIC)/Foreign Identification Number (FIN) or VPA.

What is the UPI-PayNow linkage?

Cross-border retail payments are generally less transparent and more expensive than domestic transactions. 

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.

How will it benefit the citizens of both countries?

The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of each of the two fast payment systems to make instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without a need to get on board the other payment system.

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