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."

 

PayPal’s Paidy Deal Substantiates Pandemic-Led FinTech Boom

The US-based PayPal Holdings Inc confirms that it is taking over Paidy, a buy now, pay later platform, for $2.7 billion, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Buying Paidy, PayPal is all set to expand its footprint in the US where online shopping has tripled during the last decade to roughly $ 200 billion. Even though two-thirds of purchases are still paid in cash, the FinTech company is optimistic about its continued growth in the US.

The PayPal-Paidy deal reflects how the pandemic-led boom continues to broaden its horizon. Besides FinTech, the ecommerce and manufacturing sectors have witnessed a major boom during the pandemic.

“I wouldn't view this (deal) as impacting the U.S. BNPL market but more as PayPal's route into the Japanese market,” Kunaal Malde, an analyst at Atlantic Equities, said.

Like Americans, the Japanese also prefer cash over online transactions. However, things have changed in the recent past as the FinTech industry continues to flourish.

“One of the notable things about Japan’s BNPL market compared to the United States or Europe is that most users clear their outstanding balance by the end of the month in one payment. In Japan accumulating debt is more frowned on.”

With all this said, PayPal is eyeing the top spot in an industry experiencing a boom led by the ongoing pandemic.

The quotes used in this piece were extracted from Reuters.