UPI-PayNow Integration for Cross-Border Payments: 5 Points on What the System Aims to Achieve

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the real-time bank-to-bank money transfer system developed and maintained by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) gained support for integration with its counterpart in Singapore, PayNow. Customers will be able to quickly send funds to and from the two countries at cheaper rates. Both UPI and PayNow offer similar features, including the ability to pay other users or request fund using only the sender or recipient's mobile phone number or a virtual payment address. 

The launch and linkage of cross-border connectivity for both UPI and PayNow was announced on Tuesday by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon.

Here are five points on the newly launched integration.