SBI Joins India’s First Cross-Border Real-Time UPI-PayNow Payments System With Singapore 

State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, on February 22, 2023 announced that its BHIM SBIPay has been integrated with the new real-time payments system between India and Singapore. The new remittance interface has been implemented on Tuesday, paving the way for faster and more transparent money transfers between the two countries. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday launched the system, which combines India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow. It allows peer-to-peer fund transfers through participating banks and other financial institutions.  

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Managing Director Ravi Menon completed their first live cross-border transaction through the new system. 

Dinesh Khara, the chairman of SBI, said this pathbreaking initiative will go a long way in boosting the government’s digitization initiatives for seamless cross-border payments. 

“The linkage will allow fund transfers from India to Singapore through registered mobile numbers and from Singapore to India using UPI ID. The UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant milestone towards development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore,” the bank said in a statement. 

The initiative closely aligns with the G20’s (group of 20 nations) priorities of driving faster, cheaper, and more transparent cross-border payments.  

The inward bilateral remittance between Singapore and India is around $949 million as of 2021, as per World Bank Bilateral Remittance Matrix December 2022. 

Using their mobile numbers, Singapore National Registration Identity Card (NRIC), Foreign Identification Number (FIN), or virtual payment address (VPA), Singapore nationals can send and receive money instantly between banks or e-wallets. Through the UPI system, Indians can send or receive money through their mobile phone numbers in a similar manner.

PM Modi said: “The linkage of these two payment systems between India and Singapore would enable residents of both countries to initiate a faster and more cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances.” He added that it will help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, professionals, students, and workers to instantly money from Singapore to India and vice-versa.

Reacting to the new cross-border payments system, a spokesperson for the Paytm said: “The UPI-PayNow real-time payment system will enable low-cost, instant fund transfers between the two countries. This is a big milestone for India’s digital leadership as it takes UPI global.”