Various steps have been taken by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to expand the reach of UPI outside India. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. The steps are given below:-
- NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is devoted for internationalisation of UPI. NIPL has undertaken various initiatives across nations to enable cross-border acceptance of BHIM UPI QR at merchant establishment. These partnerships will facilitate Indian travellers to make payments using the BHIM UPI QR for all their retail purchases at international merchant establishments.
- Currently, BHIM UPI QR has gained acceptance in Singapore (March, 2020), Bhutan (July, 2021) and recently with partners in UAE and Nepal (February, 2022). However, travel restrictions owing to the pandemic over the last two years have impacted overseas use of this facility.
- In this regard, RBI has been facilitating engagements for the expansion of UPI in countries which have potential for collaboration. Various models of engagements being explored are as follows:
- Central Bank to Central Bank cooperation through an agreement or MoU;
- Central Bank facilitated discussion and agreement between the network and the Central Bank / Government Agency; and
- Network to network arrangement.
Further, the performance of UPI123Pay launched in March 2022 is as follows:
| March 2022* | |
| Users on-boarded | 37,096 |
| Balance check | 31,473 |
| Successful transactions | 21,833 |
| Successful transactions value (Rs. In lacs) | 79.15 |
Source: RBI
*data is as on 21.03.2022