Google India Digital Services and NPCI International Payments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand UPI to countries beyond India.
The MoU has three key objectives. To broaden the use of UPI payments for travelers outside of India, enabling them to conveniently make transactions abroad. To assist in establishing UPI-like digital payment systems in other countries, and to focus on easing the process of remittances between countries by utilizing the UPI infrastructure, thereby simplifying cross-border financial exchanges.
“We are pleased to team up with Google Pay to propel UPI onto the global stage. This strategic partnership will not only simplify foreign transactions for Indian travelers but will also allow us to extend our knowledge and expertise of operating a successful digital payments ecosystem to other countries”, Ritesh Shukla, CEO – NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), said.
Objectives of the MoU aim to help accelerate UPI’s global acceptance, providing foreign merchants to access the Indian consumers who will no longer have to rely only on foreign currency or credit and forex cards for making digital payments, the company said in a press release.
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“We are delighted to support NIPL towards expanding the reach of UPI to international markets. Google Pay has been a proud and willing collaborator to NPCI and the financial ecosystem, under the regulator’s guidance, and this collaboration is another step towards our commitment to making payments simple, safe and convenient”, Deeksha Kaushal, Director, Partnerships, Google Pay India said.
NPCI International is the international arm of NPCI and works to deploy UPI and card payments system RuPay outside India.
Earlier last year, the NPCI enabled transactions from mobile numbers of ten countries beginning with Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, United States of America, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The feature allows Non-resident account types like NRE/NRO that have international mobile numbers to transact with UPI. PhonePe also launched support for UPI transactions in UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal, and Bhutan that have local QR codes.
