India, Singapore to link UPI to enable easy and instant money transfers; check details
"Singapore wants to connect its PayNow with UPI, and that project will be completed sometime in the next few months," said P Kumaran, India's High Commissioner in Singapore. Link like UPI-PayNow could serve as a model for establishing a cross-border payment infrastructure between India and Asean countries.
FollowIndia and Singapore are planning to link their respective fast payment systems, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow, to allow easy fund transfers between the two countries at the lowest possible cost, according to P Kumaran, India's High Commissioner in Singapore.
According to the report, the money can be transferred from India to Singapore using mobile phone numbers and from Singapore to India using UPI virtual payment addresses under the proposed linkage (VPA).
Both the countries' central banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), will team up on the move. The initiative to link Singapore's PayNow with UPI will be finished shortly, according to Kumaran. Once it does, people in Singapore can send money to their families and friends in India.
PayNow is similar to the RuPay card payment network in India. It has links with other Asean countries, so if the UPI-PayNow link is maintained, India can connect to those countries via Singapore.
"Most Indian visitors arrive without a RuPay card, and if they do, it may just be a domestic RuPay card, which complicates matters. So, in the future, we will see many people leaning toward digitalisation, not carrying a lot of cash, not relying on international credit cards with high fees," Kumaran said.
UPI-PayNow will benefit workers who visit Singapore for a short time and typically pay about 10 per cent of the amount as bank fees for money transfers.
A link like UPI-PayNow could serve as a model for establishing a cross-border payment infrastructure between India and Asean countries.
Payment connectivity collaboration would benefit migrant workers, tourists, small businesses, and enterprises.
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