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World Affairs, Economy
Mahesh

23/02/23 10:56 AM IST

India’s UPI and Singapore’s PayNow are now integrated

In News
  • India’s real-time retail payment system Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has allowed for quick digital payments through apps like BharatPe and Paytm, and its equivalent network in Singapore called PayNow, were integrated recently to enable faster remittances between the two countries at a competitive rate.
UPI and PayNow
  • Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is India’s mobile-based fast payment system, which facilitates customers to make round-the-clock payments instantly, using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) created by the customer.
  • It eliminates the risk of sharing bank account details by the remitter. UPI supports both Person-to-Person (P2P) and Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payments and it also enables a user to send or receive money.
  • 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.
Significance
  • 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.
  • The project to link both the fast payment systems was initiated in September 2021 to facilitate faster, more efficient and transparent cross-border transactions relating to trade, travel and remittances between the two countries.
  • As per the ministry of external affairs (MEA) document Population of Overseas Indians (2022), there are approximately 6.5 lakh Indians, including non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin, currently residing in Singapore.
  • Of the total inward remittances to India in 2020-21, the share of Singapore stood at 5.7%, according to the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) Remittance Survey, 2021.
  • Integration of the system will bring down the cost of sending remittances by as much as 10%.
Source- Indian Express

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