NPCI International to offer UPI in UAE, ties up with Mashreq Bank

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National Payment Corporation of India’s (NPCI) international arm NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) on August 20 said that it has partnered with Mashreq Bank in the UAE to offer the United Payments Interface (UPI) in the country. This marks UPI’s foray into the third country outside of India after Singapore and Bhutan.

“This partnership will enable over 2 million Indians who travel to the UAE for business or leisure purposes every year to pay for their purchases using UPI-based mobile applications across shops and merchant stores in the UAE,” the statement read.

Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NPCI International Payments, said, “We are excited about our partnership with Mashreq Bank, which will enable consumers from India to transact seamlessly using NPCI’s world-renowned UPI platform and deliver seamless user experience. We look forward to attaining new highs with this partnership in the important and strategic UAE market. "

The statement added that the tie-up is timely for Mashreq Bank as there is a growing appetite amongst its customers and retailers to leverage mobile-based payment systems. The bank has witnessed 20 percent month-on-month growth in pick-up rate as young and tech-savvy customers seek to use the mobile payment systems along with a growing number of retailers across the UAE that accept such transactions.

“We are delighted to collaborate with NIPL to introduce their mobile-based real-time payment systems to our customers in the UAE. Given the position of the UAE as an international commerce and tourism hub, retail merchants in the Emirates always enable the latest payment methods that are expected by our international clients,” said Kartik Taneja, Executive Vice President and Head of Payments at Mashreq Bank.

NPCI International Payments was incorporated on April 3, 2020, as a wholly owned subsidiary of NPCI with an aim to internationalise products like RuPay and UPI. Prior to this, the payments provider has forged tie-ups with the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan and Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS), Singapore for UPI adoption.

In 2020, UPI witnessed total transactions worth $457 billion, equivalent to approximately 15 percent of India’s GDP.