Singapore and India link up PayNow and UPI for real-time cross-border payments
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have linked up their respective digital payment systems, Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), to enable customers of participating financial institutions in both countries to send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets in real time.
MAS and RBI link up PayNow and UPI
Using phone numbers, virtual payment addresses and UPI identities, customers in both countries will now be able to make real-time cross-border transfers.
The tie-up is the world’s first real-time payment systems linkage to use a scalable cloud-based infrastructure to accommodate future increases in remittance volumes.
The service will be rolled out to customers of Singapore’s DBS Bank and Liquid Group in a “phased approach”, where both institutions will slowly increase the number of eligible users and transaction limits from today until the end of March to ensure customers are familiarised with the service.
Indian customers of all participating banks (Axis Bank, DBS India, ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and State Bank of India) will be able to receive funds through the service from the onset.
However, sending funds will initially be limited to customers of ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and State Bank of India, with gradual expansion expected further down the line.
“Participating financial institutions have committed to ensuring that the service is cost-efficient and accessible, including to foreign workers and students residing in Singapore and India, enabling them to make and receive low-cost cross-border remittances back to and from their home countries,” MAS and RBI say.
The two central banks add that they will progressively review and scale the linkage with the aim of opening it up to more participating financial institutions and developing new use cases.
