Real-time payment using BHIM UPI can now be made between India and Singapore

23 Feb 2023 , 07:55 AM

The State Bank of India on Wednesday announced cooperation with PayNow, Singapore’s online payment system, for cross-border payments, one day after a real-time payments system linkage was formed between India and Singapore utilizing the UPI platform. 

According to a statement from the bank, the capability is made available through SBI’s Bhim SBIPay mobile application, and the linkage would permit fund transfers from India to Singapore using registered mobile numbers, as well as from Singapore to India using the UPI ID.

The G20’s aims of promoting quicker, less expensive, and more transparent cross-border payments are closely aligned with the UPI-PayNow connectivity, which represents an important milestone in building an infrastructure for cross-border payments between the two nations.

According to the World Bank’s bilateral remittances matrix, the two countries combined inward bilateral remittance in 2021 was approximately USD 949 million.

The first live cross-border transaction utilizing the Bhim SBIPay was carried out by RBI governor Shaktikanta Das and Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city state’s equivalent of the Reserve Bank of India, according to the bank.

‘Residents of both nations will be able to start a quicker and more affordable cross-border remittance transfer thanks to the integration of these two payment systems. By an immediate and inexpensive movement of funds both ways, it will also benefit the professionals, students, and employees who are part of the Indian diaspora in Singapore ‘Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quoted in the announcement as saying.

According to Dinesh Khara, chairman of SBI, the project will significantly advance digitalization efforts by giving consumers access to a simple, seamless cross-border payment option.

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