With the combination of those two fee techniques, the Centre believes that it will permit residents of each international locations to ship cross-border remittances extra shortly and cheaply.
(Representational picture/Twitter)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong will witness the launch of cross-border connectivity between the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow by way of videoconferencing on February 21
India and Singapore will launch a real-time fee techniques linkage between the 2 international locations on February 21. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong will witness the launch of cross-border connectivity between the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow by way of videoconferencing.
According to the federal government, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das, and Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, will lead the launch (MAS) of this cross-border connectivity.
Boost for remittances
With the combination of those two fee techniques, the Centre believes that it will permit residents of each international locations to ship cross-border remittances extra shortly and cheaply. Additionally, it’s anticipated to learn the Indian diaspora in Singapore, significantly migrant employees and college students, by permitting for on the spot and low-cost cash transfers from Singapore to India and vice versa.
According to the ministry of exterior affairs (MEA) doc Population of Overseas Indians (2022), there are 6.5 lakh Indians residing in Singapore, together with non-resident Indians and individuals of Indian origin.
Important initiative
Mehul Mistry, Global Head-Strategy, Digital Financial Services & Partnerships at Wibmo, instructed News18 that Singapore is without doubt one of the prime 4 inward remittance markets. It accounts for roughly 5.7% of all remittances to India or roughly $5.08 billion of the $100 billion whole inward remittance market.
“This initiative could have a number of benefits comparable to prospects exterior India (in Singapore) will expertise world-class fee infrastructure. This will witness the globalisation of India’s best-in-class digital fee infrastructure,” he mentioned.
Mistry believes that residents of each international locations will be capable of make sooner and cost-effective cash actions between the 2 international locations and so they additionally will be capable of make service provider funds utilizing Scan QR companies.
Chirag Taneja, the co-founder of Gokwik, believes that this is without doubt one of the most iconic moments on the earth of cross-border e-commerce.
“With UPI and PayNow coming collectively, they’re paving approach for digital-first transactions to seamlessly increase the horizon,” he mentioned. This new connection will empower companies and people with frictionless transactions past borders, making worldwide commerce extra accessible and handy than ever earlier than, Taneja added.
From a enterprise perspective, he mentioned: “Businesses additionally face 5 main challenges comparable to price, safety, time, liquidity, and transparency whereas making cross-border funds. This initiative will additional remedy most of those issues, permitting extra companies to increase their attain in different markets.”
Dileep Seinberg, founder and CEO of MuffinPay, mentioned that this initiative will open a brand new gateway for UPI-enabled Fintech platforms. He additionally believes that “undoubtedly this initiative will act as a robust catalyst, bringing a few profound change in how funds and purchases are made world wide”.
A spokesperson of cell funds service Paytm instructed News18: “We welcome UPI-PayNow real-time fee techniques linkage between India and Singapore, which is able to allow low-cost, instantaneous, and 24X7 fund switch. We will proceed to innovate to make sure assist and earliest availability of such UPI-based cross-border funds for all.”
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