Google Pay is to take India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) real-time payments system to other countries after signing a deal with the service’s manager, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
NPCI is the umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
The agreement with Google Pay India has three aims, say the partners:
- To enable Indians to make transactions abroad using UPI when they travel internationally.
- To assist in establishing UPI-like digital payment systems in other countries, providing a model for seamless financial transactions.
- To simplify cross-border financial exchanges by easing remittance processes between countries by utilizing the UPI infrastructure.
International acceptance of UPI will provide foreign merchants access to Indian customers who will no longer have to rely only on foreign currency, credit or forex cards for making digital payments and will have the option using UPI-powered apps from India — including Google Pay.
“UPI has demonstrated to the world the step change that happens in economies with the introduction of interoperable, population scale digital infrastructure and each economy that joins such networks will create impact beyond the sum of parts,” said Google Pay India’s director of partnerships, Deeksha Kaushal, at the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
Ritesh Shukla, chief executive of NPCI’s International Payments Limited division, added “This strategic partnership will not only simplify foreign transactions for Indian travelers but will also allow us to extend our knowledge and expertise of operating a successful digital payments ecosystem to other countries.”
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