You Can Now Use Singapore's PayNow in India and Thailand
Sending remittances from Singapore to India or vice versa is now faster and more accessible, with the two countries connecting their digital payments infrastructures.
The initiative, announced on Tuesday, 21 February, connects India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore's PayNow facility to facilitate cross-border retail payments and money transfers. That means, if you have loved ones in India, you can now send them money using the PayNow service.
"This will enable people from both the countries to immediately and at low-cost transfer funds (by) just using their mobile phones," said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlighting how it helps migrant workers, professionals and the families of students.
"The UPI-PayNow linkage will grow in utility and will contribute more in facilitating trade," Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, meanwhile, said.
The initiative is seen as a major milestone as it's reportedly the world’s first real-time payment systems linkage to leverage a scalable cloud-based infrastructure, allowing it to accommodate a higher volume of remittance traffic in the future.
"The PayNow-UPI linkage is the result of extensive collaboration between the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), both countries’ payment system operators, payment scheme owners and participating banks and non-bank financial institutions," said MAS.
In Singapore, customers of DBS and fintech company Liquid Group can expect the service to become available in phases. Right now, only selected DBS customers can transfer funds of up to S$200 per transaction, capped at S$500 per day. However, by 31 March, the service shall be available to all DBS customers with transfers of up to S$1,000.
In India, meanwhile, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank are handling inward and outward remittances, while Axis Bank and DBS India are handling inward remittances. Up to 60,000 Indian rupees can be remitted for a start.
Previously, Singapore worked with Thailand on a similar initiative, linking the countries' two payment systems – the former's PayNow and the latter's PromptPay – to facilitate a new remittance solution. The Southeast Asian city state is now working on linking up with Malaysia.
Singapore and India have announced an initiative that connects the former's PayNow facility to the latter's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to facilitate cross-border retail payments and money transfers.
"This will enable people from both the countries to immediately and at low-cost transfer funds (by) just using their mobile phones," said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The UPI-PayNow linkage will grow in utility and will contribute more in facilitating trade," Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, meanwhile, said.