NPCI's international arm aims to take UPI to 6 more countries in 2025

The payments body is planning to launch UPI in geographies relevant to Indian tourists like Qatar, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian markets.

NCPI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), a subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) responsible for deploying homegrown payment products globally, is aiming to expand its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to up to six countries in 2025.

NIPL plans to launch its instant payments service in countries Qatar, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations frequented by Indian tourists.

"While NPCI in India works at a breakneck speed, we have partners outside India who have their way of completing projects. We are hopeful of going live in at least three or four more countries (in 2025), and if projects are completed on time, maybe six countries,” NPCI International Payments CEO Ritesh Shukla, said.

Shukla was participating in a panel discussion at Moneycontrol's India Fintech Conclave (IFC) 2024 in Mumbai on December 18.

UPI services are available in Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, UAE, Singapore and France.

Reeju Datta, co-founder, Cashfree Payments, a State Bank of India (SBI)-backed online payments processor and aggregator, said UPI can emerge as a global payments network. “This can unlock a large share of growth in terms of cross-border payments,” he said.

The NPCI is also working with countries such as Peru, Namibia and Trinidad and Tobago to help them create their sovereign payment ecosystems. It is also working with the UAE and Mauritius to help them create card schemes like Rupay, Shukla said.

A recent upgrade allows non-resident Indians (NRIs) in 10 countries to use UPI through their Non-Resident External (NRE) or Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts linked to their international mobile numbers.

NRIs earlier had to use an Indian mobile number and keep it active for UPI transactions.

UPI has changed the way India pays and has pushed digital transactions nine times since 2016 when it was rolled out. As reported by Moneycontrol, the share of UPI in India's digital transactions grew from 4.4 percent in FY18 to 70 percent in FY24.

A report by Paysecure said UPI leads the world in transaction volumes. In 2023, it recorded 3,729 transactions a second, a shade below the next three competitors combined.