Singapore, India Announce New Project to Link their Fast Payments Systems

Singapore's MAS and India's Central Bank (RBI) have announced a new project to link their respective fast payments systems PayNow and Unified Payments Interface (UPI). This linkage will help the users make instant low-cost money transfers from one bank account to another between Singapore and India.

This linkage will mean that people will be able to make fund transfers from Singapore to India using UPI virtual payment addresses (VPA) and India to Singapore using just mobile phone numbers.

MAS in its statement said, "The connectivity between PayNow and UPI is a major milestone in the development of next-generation infrastructure for cross-border payments between Singapore and India, and is closely aligned with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments."

The UPI-PayNow linkage will build upon the earlier efforts of NETS and NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) to foster cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes, between Singapore and India. This project is expected to improve trade, travel, and remittance flows between the two countries.

Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of MAS, said, "By reducing the cost and inefficiencies of remittances between Singapore and India, the PayNow-UPI linkage will directly benefit individuals and businesses in Singapore and India that greatly rely on this mode of payment. Given that PayNow and UPI are integral components of their respective national digital infrastructures, the link between the two systems also paves the way for establishing more comprehensive digital connectivity and interoperability between the two countries."

 

UnionPay International to Launch Tajikistan’s First Contactless E-Wallet

UnionPay International (UPI) has announced that it is partnering with International Bank of Tajikistan to launch the country’s maiden contactless e-wallet. This will make UnionPay the very first payment brand to offer mobile contactless payment services in the country.

This expansion into Tajikistan will mean that UnionPay mobile payments will now reach to 10 million. UnionPay’s standard e-wallets are present in over 20 countries and regions, including Macao, South Pacific, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. The company has rolled out an astounding ten e-wallets in the second quarter of this year.

UPI is continuously applying its technology, specifications and market experience of the Chinese mainland mobile payments to the international market successfully. It offers a variety of wallet products such as the UnionPay App, mobile QuickPass and QR code e-wallets outside the Chinese mainland. Users can enjoy diverse payment experiences with a scan, tap or click.

“The e-wallet launched in Tajikistan reflects these features. Local POS terminals supporting UnionPay QuickPass account for over 80% of the total, and the International Bank of Tajikistan has also issued a large number of UnionPay cards within the country over the past three years,” said UPI’s press release.

WhatsApp may launch payment services commercially within two months

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has confirmed that WhatsApp will follow data localization rules over the next two months; so that it can launch its payments service in India on a full scale, PTI reported.

In an interview with PTI, Dilip Abse, CEO of NPCI said that even after WhatsApp out its payments service, it will take at least to cut the cash dominance in the country as the user base of digital payments needs to be at least treble to 300 million to have any tangible impact on paring cash usage.

“There are still a couple of intermediaries where work is in progress. One is Google, and the second is WhatsApp. We believe WhatsApp will be fully compliant in the next two months' time,” said Mr. Abse.

Since 2018, users have been using a beta version of the payment services in India and stakeholders, and its 300 million users have been eagerly waiting for the official launch.

A third-party audit by a firm impanelled by the RBI is currently underway to ascertain WhatsApp's compliance. Once the auditors complete their probe, NPCI will review the same and will see how to move forward, added Mr. Abse.

Mr. Abse hoped that the popularity of digital payments would thrive in India with the increased use of NPCI-developed UPI platform by intermediaries like WhatsApp.