Google Pay, a digital payment application, is set to expand its UPI services globally by joining hands with NPCI Payments International Limited (NPIL), a subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The move will extend the transformative impact of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) beyond India, providing users with seamless payment experiences when travelling abroad.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Google India Digital Services and NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), Google Pay users will be able to make UPI transactions and can pay foreign merchants using G-pay when abroad. This feature eliminates the need for international cards, as users are paying foreign merchants directly in the local currency. When using an international credit card, users usually get burdened with a foreign currency transaction fee.
The proposed service is currently available in countries where UPI is functional. These countries include Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, the USA, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
Google Pay thus joins the league of apps and banks enabling peer-to-peer (P2P) remittances through UPI. As of now it is only available between India and Singapore, and users of Singapore’s PayNow and India’s UPI will be able to make instant money transfers between the two countries through any of these services. Reportedly, P2P connections using UPI are in the pipeline for countries like UAE, Mauritius and Indonesia.
G-pay now joins the ranks of other major players in the digital payments space, such as BHIM, PhonePe, and Paytm, along with various banks like Axis Bank, DBS Bank India, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and State Bank of India.
The MoU outlines three primary objectives. First, it seeks to broaden the use of UPI payments for travellers outside of India, enabling them to conveniently make transactions abroad. Second, the MoU intends to assist in establishing UPI-like digital payment systems in other countries, providing a model for seamless financial transactions. Lastly, it focuses on easing the process of remittances between countries by utilizing the UPI infrastructure, thereby simplifying cross-border financial exchanges.
Deeksha Kaushal, Director, Partnerships, Google Pay India said, “UPI has demonstrated to the world the step change that happens in economies with the introduction of interoperable, population-scale digital infrastructure and each economy that joins such networks will create impact beyond the sum of parts."
In 2023, UPI in India facilitated a whopping 117.6 billion transactions, a huge rise compared to the 74 billion transactions in 2022 and 38.7 billion transactions in 2021.
