The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Shaktikanta Das expressed optimism about the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) expanding into more nations. “We expect this to grow further at the global level and internationalise in future.”
Using QR codes and the connection of quick payment systems, Das, who is currently on a five-day visit to Odisha, stated that UPI is already available in many countries and that negotiations are in progress with several other countries.
Earlier this week at an event in Mumbai on Wednesday, Das stated that significant strides have already been made in this regard with respect to the acceptance of RuPay cards and payments through the UPI network in a number of countries, including Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, the UAE, Mauritius, Namibia, Peru and France.
He stated that these activities highlight cooperative efforts for the global adoption of India’s initiatives.
Moreover, the nation’s real-time retail payment system, UPI, and its Singaporean counterpart, PayNow, were merged in February of last year to facilitate quicker and more affordable remittances between the inhabitants of the two nations. The agreement with authorities in UAE, Nepal, Namibia and Peru to deploy UPI-like solutions and the integration of UPI with FPS in Singapore for peer-to-peer remittances represent the first steps towards achieving global financial interconnection.
Prior to this, pilot programs for digital rupee were introduced by the RBI in November 2022 for the wholesale market and in December 2022 for the retail market.
(with PTI inputs)