Within less than 10 years of its launch, Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has accrued 260 million users in India and the technology has played an important role in helping Indians shift to digital payment.
In October 2016, it recorded one million transactions, but has now crossed 10 billion. This number appears even more significant when considering that UPI accounted for 75 percent of the retail transaction volume in 2022-23.
Having achieved dominance in the Indian market, UPI has also gone global, easing NRIs to send money back to the country. The biggest selling point for UPI is that it has accelerated and reduced the cost of cross-border transactions to and from India.
Which Countries Accept UPI?
Bhutan: In July 2021, Bhutan became the first country to adopt UPI standards for online payment. The NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the International arm of the NPCI, and the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan partnered together for this development.
The virtual inauguration ceremony was attended by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Bhutanese counterpart Lyonpo Namgay Tshering.
Singapore: The two nations announced their plan to link their payment system in August 2021 and originally set a deadline of July 2022 to go live with the collaboration. However, it was delayed by over six months and then finally launched in February 2023.
Malaysia: NIPL, in September 2021, partnered with Singapore Liquid Bank to launch UPI in 10 Asian countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, and Japan.
UAE: In November 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bank of the UAE signed an agreement to link UPI with its UAE counterpart, Instant Payment Platform (IPP). UAE is home to a large Indian expatriate community, numbering some 3.5 million.
Nepal: The NPCI signed an agreement with the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in March 2022 and started payments in May 2022.
France: On July 13, 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to France, announced that the two countries had agreed on a UPI payment mechanism in the country, starting from the Eiffel Tower.
United Kingdom: In August 2022, the United Kingdom and India collaborated on QR code-based transactions. NIPL tied up with payments solutions provider PayXpert.
Europe: In October 2022, Worldline, a payments service, tied up with NIPL to expand the acceptance of Indian payment means across Europe. At the time, countries like the Benelux nations (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) and Switzerland were part of it.
Oman: A formal agreement was signed between the NPCI and the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) in November.
Sri Lanka: In July 2023, India and Sri Lanka agreed to use Unified Payments Interface technology for efficient cross-border transactions.