Upi: Explained: What is UPI-PayNow integration, how to use UPI to send money and more – Times of India

India and Singapore have linked their respective digital payments systems, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow, respectively. This linkage will enable those living in India to quickly send money to people living in Singapore. Here’s all you need to know about the collaboration.
UPI and PayNow announcement
The announcement of linkage between UPI and PayNow was announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das and the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon. During the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong were also present.

What is PayNow?
PayNow is Singapore’s fast payment system. Just like UPI in India, people can send and receive funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another in Singapore using a mobile number.
This linkage is enabled through participating banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NFIs) in Singapore.
When was it announced
India and Singapore announced to link their payments systems in 2021. It was decided that the two nations will start the low-cost, cross-border funds transfer from July 2022. As per the Singapore Prime Minister, PayNow-UPI linkage is India’s first cross-border, real-time system linkage and Singapore’s second.

How to transfer funds
The PayNow-UPI linkage is the world’s first such linkage featuring cloud-based infrastructure and participation by non-bank financial institutions.
People in the country can use UPI apps like Google Pay, Paytm and other similar payment aggregator systems to make fast cross-border transfers to people in Singapore.
Currently, Indians can transfer up to SDG 1,000 (around Rs 62,000) a day, as per RBI.
Which banks are collaborating
A total of eight banks, including DBS, Liquid Group, Axis Bank and State Bank of India from India and Singapore are participating in the collaboration.
Who will benefit
The UPI-PayNow linkage will especially help the Indian diaspora, such as migrant workers and students, in Singapore. As per the ministry of external affairs (MEA) document Population of Overseas Indians (2022), there are approximately 6.5 lakh people of Indian origin are residing in Singapore.
What this collaboration mean
As per Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the launch has started a new chapter of cross-border Fintech connectivity. Modi also said there were approximately 74 billion transactions amounting to more than Rs 126 trillion done through UPI in 2022.
Furthermore, this will also push for cross-border payments between India and ASEAN countries, creating a favorable environment for digital payments beyond borders.
The integration of the system will bring down the cost of sending remittances by as much as 10%, said Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).