UPI PayNow Linkage: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the cross-border connectivity between India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow is a new milestone in India-Singapore relations. The link will enable participating banks and non-banking financial companies in both countries to transfer funds directly into each other’s bank accounts or e-wallets using a UPI ID, mobile phone number, or virtual payment address.
On Tuesday, India’s real-time retail payment system, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), was linked to its equivalent network in Singapore, allowing for faster remittances. The link was established in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, and the Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Ravi Menon.
Friendship between India and Singapore goes back a very long way and has always stood the test of time
The reason behind this friendship is our people-to-people connection: PM @narendramodi#IndiaSingaporeRelations pic.twitter.com/izC1W5ZBkC
— PIB India (@PIB_India) February 21, 2023
Through video conferencing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong witnessed the launch of cross-border connectivity between UPI and PayNow. RBI Governor Shaktikanta and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon presided over the event.
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Modi expressed hope that digital transactions will soon outnumber cash transactions, as UPI is quickly becoming the most popular payment method in the country. He also stated that in 2022, approximately 74 billion transactions totaling more than Rs 126 trillion (approximately 2 trillion Singapore dollars) were conducted via UPI.
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The link will also benefit the Indian diaspora in Singapore, particularly migrant workers and students, by allowing for instant and low-cost money transfers from Singapore to India and vice versa.
India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing fintech innovation ecosystems. The country accounts for 40% of total digital payments globally, led primarily by UPI.
