India’s UPI, Singapore’s PayNow to be linked for cross-border remittances

New Delhi: The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore will be linked to enable faster and cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would virtually witness the launch of cross-border connectivity on 21 February.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the launch will be done by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das, and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon.

The move will ensure that the benefits of UPI are not limited to India only, but other countries too benefit from it. UPI-PayNow will benefit workers who come to Singapore for a brief period of time and typically sacrifice about 10% of the amount as bank fees for money transfers.

A link like UPI-PayNow could serve as a model for establishing an infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Asean countries, the PMO said.

It will also help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers and students through instant and low cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa. Such Asean collaboration on payment connectivity would benefit migrant workers, tourists, small businesses, and enterprises.