National Payments Corp To Take UPI, Rupay Global Through New Subsidiary

Following through with its plans to expand into international markets, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched a wholly-owned subsidiary NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) to popularise domestic payments technologies such as unified interface payments (UPI) and RuPay cards platform abroad. 

The entity would also be responsible for creating payment technologies in collaboration with other countries. In a press statement, the NPCI said, “NIPL is tasked with the responsibility of exporting NPCI’s indigenously developed offerings and technological acumen to foreign markets. The primary focus of NIPL would be internationalisation of RuPay and UPI, along with a few more offerings of NPCI.” 

NIPL has been tasked with exporting NPCI’s indigenously developed offerings and technological acumen to foreign markets. Its focus will be internationalisation of the RuPay and UPI (unified payment interface) platform, the statement added.

“Several countries such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East have displayed interest towards replicating our model in their own nations,” NPCI MD and CEO Dilip Asbe said. NPCI claimed India’s cost-effective, secure and instantaneous standards have attracted the interest of several other countries. 

Speculation of UPI’s expansion into overseas markets began in October last year with reports of  In November 2019, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) signed an agreement with the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) to take UPI global. The implementation of UPI in Singapore is expected to solve the scarcity of payments options for Indians travelling abroad due to currency conversion and non-availability of credit or debit cards.

NPCI has been working with Singapore’s Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) to jointly implement UPI-based QR code payments terminals at various points of interest, including airport terminals. 

Ritesh Shukla will lead NIPL, joining from rival Mastercard’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team, backed by Anubhav Sharma, head of international business for partnership, business development and marketing, and Rina Penkar, head of international business for product development.

The UPI success story has not just influenced other nations, but also the future roadmap at tech giants. In February, Google said that it would take the learnings from its UPI success in India to shape its global digital payments products. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Google Pay India and UPI has already influenced the course of product development. 

“We had a tremendously successful launch in India from which we learned a lot of features, and we are bringing that and we are revamping our payments products globally,” Pichai had said at the time.