Hello guys, you must be wondering what UPI is and how many countries are using the INDIAN Unified Payments Interface, Of course, that’s why you have come here. So in this informative article, we will be looking at what is UPI and how many countries are using Indian UPI right now. UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate inter-bank transactions. UPI was officially launched in 2016 for public use.
It allows users to send and receive money immediately through their mobile devices using a virtual address, without having to share sensitive details such as bank account numbers or IFSC codes. Unified Payments Interface is built on top of the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and uses the customer’s mobile number and a virtual ID as the primary means of identification. It is also a real-time payment system, allowing for instant funds transfer between two users.
According to NPCI and India Briefing report, approximately 74 billion UPI transactions worth INR 125.94 trillion were conducted in the calendar year 2022. Also in 2021, the Indian platform handled more than 38 billion transactions amounting to INR 71.54 trillion. This shows a nearly 90 percent growth in transactions on the platform in one year; the average value has increased by 76 percent. A record 7.82 billion Unified Payments Interface transactions took place in December 2022, totaling INR 12.82 trillion.
In addition, do you know, how many countries are using our Indian Unified Payments Interface technology?
Countries That Are Using Indian UPI:
1 – Nepal
Nepal became the first foreign country to deploy Unified Payments Interface as a payment platform. It will be deployed in Nepal as a digital public benefit to bolster interoperable real-time person-to-person (P2P) and to-merchant (P2M) payment transactions.
NIPL partnered with (GPS) Gateway Payments Service, an authorized payment system operator in Nepal, and Bengaluru-based Manam Infotech.
2 – Singapore
In July 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signed an agreement with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to execute interoperability between UPI and PayNow. The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of each of the two fast payment systems to make instant.
3 – Bhutan
Bhutan marks the second country after Singapore to have BHIM-UPI acceptance at merchant locations. Also, Bhutan has become the first country to adopt India’s Unified Payments Interface standards for its quick response (QR) code. On July 13, 2021, It was made available to the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan.
4 – Malaysia
In 2021, Malaysia’s Merchantrade Asia, collaborated with NIPL, to allow sending remittances through UPI to India.
5 – UAE
On April 21, 2022, Unified Payments Interface was launched in the country via Mashreq’s NeoPay. NIPL has partnered with LuLu Financial Holding, Mashreq Bank, and Network International in UAE to enable UPI payments.
6 – France
NIPL signed MoU with French payment company Lyra Network, which will allow Indian tourists and students to make payments using Unified Payments Interface in France.
7 – United Kingdom
TerraPay, a leading global payments infrastructure group announced its partnership with NIPL on September 22, 2022. All POS terminals in the UK under payment solution provider PayXpert will enable UPI-based QR code payment in partnership with NIPL.
8 – Oman
NPCI signed MoU with the Central Bank of Oman on 4 October 2022 to connect UPI with a similar system in Oman on a reciprocal basis. It will make Unified Payments Interface QR code-based payment available in the country and make it easier for the Indian diaspora to send their remittance most-effectively way.
9 – Europe
As per MoU signed on 11 October 2022, Worldline SA will enable European merchant’s POS terminals to accept UPI. The payment will be facilitated through the Worldline QR code. The initial market expansion will start with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.
10 – Russia
India and Russia expressed interest in continuing dialogue on accepting the Unified Payments Interface and Faster Payments System (FPS) of the Central Bank of Russia within their respective national payment infrastructures. As of August 2022, both nations started working on the interaction between UPI and FPS.
More countries are about to accept Unified Payments Interface, So stay tuned for more updates.
