On a day when Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and RuPay became acceptable across Europe, Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman shared information about Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) expressing their interest in accepting India’s indigenously developed card payment network solution – RuPay.
“We are talking to different countries. Singapore and the UAE have come forward to make RuPay acceptable in their countries,” said Sitharaman at an event during her ongoing visit to the US.
What Did Sitharaman Say About RuPay And UPI?
Sitharaman shared an insight on the way forward for UPI, the BHIM App, and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
She said UPI, BHIM and the NPCI are now being worked in such a way that payment systems in their respective countries, regardless of their robustness or otherwise, can freely exchange information and talk to India’s systems in an interoperable manner.
She said this feature would be of immense help to Indians travelling to these countries.
Can You Currently Use UPI And RuPay Cards Abroad?
Back in June 17, 2022, NPCI’s international arm, NIPL announced that they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a French payment services provider, Lyra.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said at that time that considering the fact that India is doing 5.5 billion UPI transactions per month, “this strategic partnership will definitely prove to be a game-changer in the digital payments ecosystem”.
What this MoU enabled was the usage of UPI and RuPay cards in France.
In July 2021, NIPL partnered with Bhutan’s central bank to launch a QR code-based UPI solution. In February 2022, NIPL partnered up with Manam Infotech to enable UPI-based payments in Nepal. In April 2022, NIPL again partnered with NeoPay, a payments service subsidiary of the UAE-based Mashreq Bank, for UPI payments.
NIPL has been quite busy striking partnerships in the last few years, for wider acceptance of UPI and RuPay cards across the globe.
On October 12, 2022, NIPL announced its partnership with Worldline payments, a Paris-based payment solution company for working of UPI and RuPay card payments across Europe, with Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg) and Switzerland being the first batch of countries getting them.
This new partnership will now help Indians travelling to Europe to pay for their purchases and services using Worldline’s QR code-based payment solution on European point of sale (PoS) machines through UPI and RuPay.
Purpose Of Sitharaman’s Visit To The US
Sitharaman is on an official visit to the US. During her visit, she will be attending the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governor (FMCBG) Meetings.
She will meet her US counterpart, Janet Yellen, US Secretary of the Treasury, as well as David Malpass, president, World Bank.
She will also participate in bilateral meetings with leaders of several countries, namely Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bhutan, New Zealand, Egypt, Germany, Mauritius, the UAE, Iran and the Netherlands.
Besides these, she will also hold one-on-one meetings with leaders and heads of the Organisation of the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Commission, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP ).
Apart from bilateral meetings and these one-on-one session, she will in the later part of her visit, attend roundtable meetings with USIBC and USISPF on themes to ‘Strengthen Investment and Innovation in India-US Corridor’ and ‘Investing in India’s Digital Revolution’.
She aims to highlight India’s policy priorities and emphasise on showcasing India’s attractiveness as an investment destination for foreign investments.
