By George Ward
The national payment network of India, the UPI (Unified Payment Interface), will now extend its services into another Asian Country -Singapore. A major banking partner in the borderless remittance service also plays a major role in the Indian government’s CBDC agenda.
Established in September 2022 to help the Indian economy achieve a more cashless policy, the UPI has been anticipating a time when it can extend its services to other countries in Asia and beyond. The recent expansion of its services into Singapore is a testimony that its original goal is far from unachievable.
A Fast And Reliable Digital Payment System
This initiative is a source of joy to Indians and Singaporeans at home and abroad. The serving leader of the Reserve bank of India – Shaktikanta Das, and executive director managing affairs at MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore), launched activities with a digital asset transaction with UPI Paynow linkage.
Launching this fast and reliable digital payment system will ensure that business transactions between people in India and Singapore are done without stress. It is now easy to transfer funds between the two countries using specially assigned characters assigned by the UPI called the UPI-ID.
Transactions can as well be initiated without the UPI-ID. But users will need a phone number or digital payment info to send the funds successfully.
The UPI instant payment service transfers funds in a short time. It is designed to process and complete transactions within seconds. The banks committed to initially processing transactions going out of India are State, Oversee, ICICI, and Indian Banks. DBS and Axis banks were commissioned to ensure smooth transactions concerning funds coming to India from Singapore.
DBS and Axis financial institutions will be in charge of providing services to Singapore-based users. Offering a wide range of finance-related services, the ICICI bank has also been included in the Indian CBDC plan.
Mutual Benefits
The CBDC pilot was inaugurated in two stages. In November 2022, the large-scale market for wholesale users was launched.
This marks the first stage of the launching process. The second stage of the launch took place in the last month of 2022 for retail users.
Over seven hundred transactions have been recorded since the commissioning of the pilot stage, and these transactions were carried out between 8 banks. Five prominent cities in the two countries have been involved in the pilot stage, while nine other cities will likely be involved before the end of the pilot stage.
Prominent businessman and Chief Executive Officer of “the top Crypto exchange in India”, Unocoin – Sathvik Vishwanath commented, “this cooperation between Singapore and India will greatly benefit India.”
He says many skilled professionals reside in Singapore – about 30 % of India’s population. This collaboration will reduce time wasting and reluctance to sign new deals because of payment problems.