The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have unveiled a project to link their respective fast payment systems, enabling users to make instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without a need to get onboarded onto the other payment system.
The linkage between India's Unified Payment Interface and Singapore's PayNow system builds upon the earlier efforts of NPCI International Private Limited (NIPL) and Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) to foster cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes between the two countries.
Slated for go-live in July 2022, the two central banks say the linkage will further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries and is in line with RBI’s vision of reviewing corridors and charges for inbound cross-border remittances.
Mobile-based UPI supports both person to person (P2P) and person to merchant (P2M) payments, while PayNow enables users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another in Singapore by using just their mobile number.