Government In Talks With 7-8 Countries For UPI Inter-Linkage: DFS Nagaraju

The central government is in talks with 7-8 countries to integrate India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with their respective national payment systems. According to Financial Services Secretary M. Nagaraju, talks are in motion, and the government is confident of closing some of the partnerships in the next year.

The immediate focus is on the Middle East and East Asia because these regions have large Indian communities that rely heavily on digital payments and remittances. Europe would be next on the list.

Already, UPI operates in countries like Singapore, the UAE, Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and France. This newer push aims to take this network wider as part of a larger effort to present UPI as a global standard for quick and low-cost payments.

Recent developments show the expansion is gaining pace. Qatar has become one of the latest countries to accept UPI through QR codes. This was made possible through a partnership between NPCI International and Qatar National Bank. The first place where UPI went live was Qatar Duty Free inside the airport, and the service is now active in large retail chains like Lulu stores. For Indian travelers and the large expatriate population in Qatar, this means they can pay straight from their UPI apps without depending on foreign cards.

Bahrain has also joined the UPI network through a new agreement between NPCI International and BENEFIT, which operates the country's Fawri+ instant payment system. This will link and allow real-time cross-border transfers between India and Bahrain. Since Indians form a significant part of Bahrain's population, the move is expected to reduce transfer costs and make money movement much faster and simpler. Both sides have described it as an important step in strengthening financial cooperation.

Nagaraju said that the larger banking and financial services ecosystem has undergone a sea of change in the last ten years and has emerged as far more stable and trustworthy. If the current sets of discussions go according to plan, the UPI map may grow even further in the next year, making cross-border payments seamless for millions of users.