It will become a common remittance platform in collaboration with Singapore’s PayNow fund transfer service and make the process real time instead of taking more than a day to complete international transfers.
NPCI International Payments Limited, a subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India, which manages UPI, is working closely with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on a pilot project, which is expected to be operational by December.
The move will enable individuals and businesses to reduce the cost of money transfers between Singapore and India with seamless currency convertibility, the people said.
Other Indian banks linked to Singapore’s DBS include private lenders
and state owned and .
A spokesperson for the bank confirmed the conversation, saying, “DBS Bank, Singapore, is the settlement bank (for the outward remittance phase).
NPCI and Indian banks did not respond to ET’s queries.
If a customer having a local bank account in Mumbai remits money in Indian rupees to an account with a Singapore-based bank, the foreign bank pays the recipient in Singapore dollars, converting it to Indian rupees. The process usually takes more than a day.
According to DBS Bank, the proposed platform will make it a real-time transfer, “subject to the availability of funding and no screening hits”.
In India, UPI is gaining momentum. The platform processed transactions worth over Rs 10.73 lakh crore in August, up 68% from a year ago, ET reported on September 6.
The Reserve Bank of India is monitoring the operational process between the payment systems of the two countries. The project, which was to be commissioned by July, got delayed due to geopolitical developments.
“The UPI-Penau linkage is an important milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore, and closely aligns with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments. linked,” RBI said on September 14 last year, when it announced the scheme.
The linkage builds on the earlier efforts of NPCI International and the Network for Electronic Transfers to promote cross-border inter-operability of payments using cards and QR codes between India and Singapore, and trade, travel and remittances between the two countries. will carry forward the flow.
This initiative is also in line with RBI’s vision to review corridors and charges for cross-border remittances outlined in the Payment Systems Vision Document 2019-21.
UPI is India’s mobile based, fast payment system that allows customers to make instant payments round the clock.
PayNow is Singapore’s fast payment system that enables a peer-to-peer fund transfer service available to retail customers through participating banks and non-bank financial institutions in Singapore.