In its bid to further expand the reach of UPI, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is taking UPI-based payments to the UK, which will make UPI global.
NIPL, the global arm of NPCI, has entered into an agreement with UK-based online payments infrastructure provider PPRO to enable UPI payments for digital transactions in the UK.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Simon Black, CEO-PPRO, said, “International payment service providers and their merchants can now easily tap into an e-commerce market that is expected to reach an estimated $111 billion next year, and predicted to almost double to $200 billion by 2026. By integrating UPI into PPRO’s digital payments infrastructure through a single connection, we have removed all the operational complexity for our partners to sell cross-border into India at scale.”
Impact of UPI Joining Hands with UK Fintech PPRO
This partnership will add India to PPRO’s Local Payment Method (LPM) coverage map. This means that all payment service providers and international merchant acquirers that come under UK’s PPRO will be able to process payments via UPI and RuPay cards.
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In the coming days, this partnership will empower the global payment service provider (PSPs), banks, payment gateways, and enterprises to expand globally. This means that international e-commerce merchants will gain access to Indian consumers.
For consumers, this means they can seamlessly make cross-border purchases in Indian Rupees using their favourite payment method.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ritesh Shukla, CEO-NIPL, said, “UPI has revolutionised the digital payments landscape in India and is respected globally for its role in simplifying and democratising payments. By partnering with PPRO, a market leader in the payments infrastructure space, which powers a vast PSP and merchant network, Indian consumers will now be able to shop online with merchants around the world and pay safely and easily using UPI.”
Is UPI Global?
It has been a few years since National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has been taking several efforts to make UPI a global phenomenon. Till now, 23 countries have joined hands with NPCI to enable UPI.
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Nepal became the first country to adopt UPI for P2P as well as P2M digital payments. Following this, NPCI has also taken UPI global by signing deals with the governments of UAE, Singapore, Japan, and China.
Early last year, NIPL partnered with Netherlands-based TerraPay to enable digital payments. This will essentially allow Indian UPI users who have an active UPI ID to receive international payments into their bank accounts in real-time.
The list of NPCI partners is an ever growing one. In October 2022, NIPL collaborated with Worldline, a European payment service provider for digital payments. As part of the partnership, Worldline will bring more convenience for Indian customers in the European markets by allowing merchants’ point-of-sale (POS) systems to accept payments from UPI, an instant real-time payment system, as well as RuPay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question 1: What is NPCI?
Answer: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organisation that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India. It was incorporated in 2008.
Over the years, NPCI has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country and effectively changed the way payments are made in India.
It handles a bouquet of retail payment products such as RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC FasTag) and Bharat BillPay.
Question 2: What is PPRO?
Answer: PPRO is a UK fintech company that provides digital payments infrastructure to businesses and banks. Banks and fintech companies like Citi, PayPal, and Stripe among others depend on PPRO to scale their checkout, acquiring, and risk services through one connection.
Question 3: Can NRIs use UPI?
Answer: Yes, NRIs who live in UAE, Canada, Australia, UK, USA, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, Hongkong, and Saudi Arabia can use UPI to send and receive money from their international mobile numbers. However, to be able to do that their international mobile number must be linked to their domestic bank account (NRE bank account), which should be active.
