Soon money transfers between India-Singapore using UPI: Indian envoy

Singapore, November 11 (ANI): India and Singapore have completed technical preparations to link their fast payment systems UPI and PayNow to enable fund transfers between the two countries instantaneously and at low cost, a move which is aimed at benefitting migrant workers.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), have been working on linking the United Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow, a project that is expected to roll out very soon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to announce the project once it is formalized, the envoy told ANI.

“For us, the practical implications sitting here is that any worker who wants to send small amounts can do so at a fraction of the money they are being charged by the standard money transfer companies. So it is going to be a big benefit to those who instead of sending money in one go can do so in small pieces and it will still cost less,” the Indian envoy to Singapore said.

“PayNow also has similar initiatives with other countries in Asean so when PayNow connects this side with India and that side with Asean countries they can go from India to any Asean country through Singapore. They currently have a project with the Philippines, the Indian ambassador said.

“Eventually we will also have added connectivity and it will reduce transaction costs of remittances,” The Indian envoy said.

Approximately there are an estimated 2 lakh workers come to Singapore to work for brief periods and they often send money back home. The UPI-PayNow especially will benefit migrant workers who typically sacrifice about 10 per cent as fees charged by banks for money transfers.

The Asean has become the fifth-largest economic community in the world. A linkage such as the UPI-PayNow could become a model for setting up an infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and the Asean countries.

“Most Indian tourists who come here do not have a RuPay card and even if they have it they might have the domestic RuPay card so it is a bit complicated. So in future, we see a lot of people leaning to digitalisation not carrying a lot of cash not dependant on international credit cards which have very high fees,” the Indian High Commissioner in Singapore said.

The new methods of cross-border payments can make money transactions between countries in the region fast and convenient and much cheaper.