India has announced that it will expand its UPI payment interface beyond its borders. According to the statement published by the country, the payment system will be infused with the PayNow system in Singapore. The head of the premier institutions of both India and Singapore jointly announced the new feature. With the new feature, residents of both countries can make inter-country transfers swiftly.
Banks will help to facilitate payments
According to the details of the update, users in both countries can send and receive cash using various sanctioned methods. Asides from using their unique UPI identification, users can also use phone numbers or account numbers linked to their wallets to send and receive cash.
The UPI leverages a swift system that allows cash transfers between two accounts, completing the transactions at the speed of light. The published document also said mentioned some banks, including the State Bank of India, will help users send their funds out of the country. Meanwhile, only a limited amount of banks will be on hand to help them facilitate incoming payments. However, only two banks, including DBS, have been highlighted for incoming and outgoing transactions in Singapore.
India intensifies CBDC push
One of the banks listed by the premier bank of India, ICICI Bank, is one of the few banks lending a helping hand towards its CBDC project. The premier bank in the country rolled out its CBDC last year in two phases, with the first for wholesale users in November 2022 and the second for retailer users in December 2022. Since that period, more than 700,000 transactions have been carried out across the country. The country recently announced that the number of participating cities had been increased to five, with about seven joining the experiment in the coming days.
Giving his review of the project, an executive of a crypto exchange lauded the feat, mentioning that it will help Indians working in Singapore to send funds back home and vice versa. He also noted that the issues regarding transfer fees and speed would be significantly reduced. India has continued to beef up its payment structure since the COVID-19 period. However, despite the ease, the country has yet to be too open to crypto. The recent 30% tax has also pushed most crypto-savvy firms and individuals to seek solace outside the country. However, the government has reiterated its claims to build its budding CBDC on the blockchain.
