NPCI Partners PayXpert For Acceptance Of UPI, RuPay Cards In UK

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), on Thursday (August 18) signed an MoU with PayXpert for acceptance of the payment solutions in the UK.

The collaboration will make the Indian payment solutions available in the UK on all PayXpert’s Android point-of-sale (POS) devices for in-store payments. PayXpert would offer QR code payments via Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and later integrate RuPay card payments.

The development comes on the back of the Indian government’s effort to enable the adoption of UPI and RuPay cards in other countries. Last month, Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Singh informed the Parliament that the NPCI was in talks with 30 countries for the same.

The NPCI has also signed similar MoUs for acceptance of UPI in France, the UAE, Singapore and Nepal.

For the uninitiated, the UPI and the RuPay Card were developed by the NPCI, which enabled one of the most significant evolutions in the digital payments ecosystem in the country.

UPI is one of the most successful real-time payments systems globally, providing person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions in India. UPI transactions worth INR 73 Lakh Cr took place in 2021, which was a over 110% year-on-year rise from transactions worth INR 33.87 Lakh Cr in 2020.

On the other hand, RuPay has issued over 700 Mn cards so far in India.

“The UPI and the RuPay payment schemes are great names to add to PayXpert’s portfolio of international payment options available on our POS devices,” said David Armstrong, managing director of PayXpert. “It will open up a new field of opportunity for us in the UK and further strengthen the capability of our solution for UK merchants.”

Founded in 2019, UK-based PayXpert claims to have over 25 payment methods, processing in 100 different currencies with over 650 clients in the UK, Spain, France, and Taiwan.

PayXpert said that every year over half a million Indians travel to the UK, which includes over 100K students, and this number is expected to grow exponentially in the next five years. Hence, the partnership with the NPCI is a step towards helping Indian travellers to make payments in the European country in a familiar and convenient way.

UPI transactions in India crossed the 6 Bn mark in July 2022 as NPCI processed 628 Cr transactions worth INR 10.63 Lakh Cr in the month. Total UPI transaction volume in 2022 stood at INR 67.21 Lakh Cr ($850 Bn) till July end.