SG, India enable real-time cross-border payments

This is possible with the linkage of PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have introduced the integration of PayNow and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) which will allow customers of participating financial institutions in both countries to send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets instantly across borders.

“They can do this using just the mobile phone number, UPI identity, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA),” the MAS explained.

The service will be made available to customers of DBS Bank and Liquid Group in Singapore under a phased approach.

DBS Bank and Liquid Group will progressively increase the number of eligible user groups and transaction limits from 21 February until the end of March.

According to MAS, the PayNow-UPI linkage is the world’s first real-time payment systems linkage to use a scalable cloud-based infrastructure which can accommodate future increases in the volume of remittance traffic.

“It is also the first linkage to feature a non-bank financial institution as a participant,” MAS added.