In a major development, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been linked with Singapore’s PayNow, allowing for easy, instant, and seamless transfer of money between the people of both nations. The move is expected to benefit a large number of people who have family or business ties between the two countries.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director made token instantaneous token transactions with each other to mark the start of the cross-border link for real person-to-person money transfer.
The two nations announced their plan to link their payments systems in 2021 and had originally set a deadline of July 2022 to go live with the collaboration. “The PayNow-UPI linkage is India’s first cross-border, real-time system linkage and Singapore’s second. It’s also the world’s first such linkage feature cloud-based infrastructure and participation by non-bank financial institutions,” said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the conference.
“As we progressively add more users and use cases, the PayNow and UPI linkage will grow in utility and contribute more to facilitating our trade and our people to people links,” he added.
With the UPI-PayNow linkage in place, payments can now be made from UPI at the Indian end to PayNow at the Singapore end, and vice versa. This move is expected to make it easier for Indian workers in Singapore to transfer money back home to their families, and for Indian students studying in Singapore to receive funds from their parents in India.
The UPI-PayNow linkage is also expected to benefit businesses that operate between the two countries. Companies will now be able to make payments to their vendors and suppliers located in the other country without having to go through the hassle of traditional payment methods.
However, it is important to note that a daily limit of INR 60,000 has been imposed on these transactions. This limit is in line with the current limit for UPI transactions in India and is expected to help prevent misuse of the service.
The UPI-PayNow linkage is part of a broader effort to foster greater economic cooperation between India and Singapore. The two countries have long enjoyed strong economic ties, and the linkage is expected to further strengthen these ties.
The UPI-PayNow linkage has been widely welcomed by both individuals and businesses in both countries. Many have expressed their satisfaction with the new service, which they say will make it easier and more convenient to transfer money between the two countries.
Tuesday’s announcement is the latest in an ongoing effort from New Delhi to launch and expand its tech infrastructure such as UPI and DigiLocker to other nations. India plans to use its ongoing presidency of the G20 forum to make presentations to other nations about its digital infrastructure.
The UPI-PayNow linkage is a major development that is expected to benefit a large number of people and businesses in both India and Singapore. The service is easy to use, instantaneous, and seamless, and is expected to further strengthen the already strong economic ties between the two countries. While a daily limit has been imposed on these transactions, the service is expected to be widely used and appreciated by people and businesses in both countries.
