29 September 2021
The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Reserve Bank of India have announced plans to link Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (“UPI”) real-time payment systems by July 2022.
The PayNow-UPI linkage will enable users to make instant, low cost fund transfers directly from one bank account to another between Singapore and India. When implemented, fund transfers can be made from India to Singapore using mobile phone numbers, and from Singapore to India using UPI virtual payment addresses (“VPAs”). The experience of making a PayNow transfer to a UPI VPA will be similar to that of a domestic transfer to a PayNow VPA.
It is anticipated that the linkage will provision for increased volumes of remittance traffic, multi-entity participation, automation of capital control rules, and enriched message formats to accommodate future innovation by linkage participants. These enhancements constitute a significant upgrade to the design of cross-border payment systems today. Given that PayNow and UPI are integral components of their respective national digital infrastructures, the link between the two systems also paves the way for establishing more comprehensive digital connectivity and interoperability between the two countries.
The connectivity between PayNow and UPI is a major milestone in the development of next-generation infrastructure for cross-border payments between Singapore and India, and is closely aligned with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments. Notably, the PayNow-UPI linkage builds upon the earlier efforts of Singapore’s Network for Electronic Transfers (“NETS”) and India’s NPCI International Payments Limited (“NIPL”), to foster cross-border interoperability of card and QR payments, and will further anchor the substantial trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries.
For further information, please contact:
Peiying Chua Heikes, Linklaters
peiying.chua@linklaters.com
