Google India Digital Services Limited and NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to extend UPI’s revolutionary influence beyond India.
The MoU has three main goals. First, it aims to increase the usage of UPI payments for travellers outside of India, allowing them to conduct transactions more conveniently. Second, the MoU aims to help other nations build UPI-like digital payment systems, thereby serving as a model for frictionless financial transactions. Finally, it focuses on making international remittances easier by leveraging the UPI infrastructure, simplifying cross-border financial exchanges.
The outlined objectives will help accelerate UPI’s global acceptance by giving foreign merchants access to Indian customers who will no longer have to rely solely on foreign currency and/or credit or forex cards to make digital payments and will be able to use UPI-powered apps from India, such as Google Pay. This is in line with the NPCI‘s goal of strengthening India’s standing in the global digital payment ecosystem. Furthermore, the MoU will greatly help to streamline remittances by lowering reliance on traditional money transfer channels.
Deeksha Kaushal, Director, Partnerships, Google Pay India said, “We are delighted to support NIPL towards expanding the reach of UPI to international markets. Google Pay has been a proud and willing collaborator to NPCI and the financial ecosystem, under the regulator’s guidance, and this collaboration is another step towards our commitment to making payments simple, safe and convenient. UPI has demonstrated to the world the step change that happens in economies with the introduction of interoperable, population scale digital infrastructure and each economy that joins such networks will create impact beyond the sum of parts. We are very excited about the scope of this collaboration.”
Ritesh Shukla, CEO – NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), said, “We are pleased to team up with Google Pay to propel UPI onto the global stage. This strategic partnership will not only simplify foreign transactions for Indian travelers but will also allow us to extend our knowledge and expertise of operating a successful digital payments ecosystem to other countries. We are also excited about enabling a seamless and more connected international remittance network by further expanding UPI’s cross-border interoperability feature. With the success of UPI in a dynamic market like India we are excited to further our vision to transform the digital payments landscape globally.”
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The global growth of UPI is a watershed moment in international commerce, providing a seamless, secure, and cost-effective payment experience for both merchants and customers globally.
