The Reserve Bank of India Tuesday announced a pact with its Singaporean counterpart, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to link their respective fast payment systems.

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As part of the agreement, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will be linked to Singapore's PayNow. According to the RBI communique, this linkage is targeted for operationalisation by July 2022.

The UPI-PayNow linkage will help "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 onboarded onto the other payment system".

The move will push the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore, the RBI said. The project is in line with the "G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments".

The initiative also aligns with RBI's vision of reviewing corridors and charges for inbound cross-border remittances outlined in the Payment Systems Vision Document 2019-21.

The RBI statement reads, "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."

Like UPI, India’s mobile-based, 'fast payment' system that facilitates customers to make round-the-clock payments, PayNow also enables users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another via mobile numbers.

Meanwhile, the National Payments Corporation of India has partnered with Liquid Group, a cross-border digital payments provider, to enable QR-based UPI payments in 10 nations — Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, and Malaysia.

(Edited by : Anshul)

First Published:Sept 15, 2021 3:05 PM IST