Singapore, India to link PayNow, UPI payment systems by mid-2022

Fund transfers from India to Singapore will only need mobile phone numbers.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has unveiled plans to link their respective country’s real-time payment systems by July next year. 

The PayNow-UPI linkage will reportedly enable users to make instant, low-cost fund transfers directly from one bank account to another between Singapore and India.

Once implemented, fund transfers can be made from India to Singapore using just mobile phone numbers. From Singapore to India, they will have to use UPI virtual payment addresses. 

The linkage is expected to benefit individuals and businesses in Singapore and India that rely on PayNow and UPI as modes of payment, said Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer, MAS.

“By reducing the cost and inefficiencies of remittances between Singapore and India, the PayNow-UPI linkage will directly benefit individuals and businesses in Singapore and India that greatly rely on this mode of payment,” Mohanty said in a press release.

“Given that PayNow and UPI are integral components of their respective national digital infrastructures, the link between the two systems also paves the way for establishing more comprehensive digital connectivity and interoperability between the two countries,” he added. 

In the future, the linkage may open to increased volumes of remittance traffic, multi-entity participation, automation of capital control rules, and enriched message formats to accommodate future innovation by linkage participants.

The linkage will also be built in such a way that it is open to enhancements by linkage participants in the future. This includes accounting for a possible increase in volumes of remittance traffic; multi-entity participation; automation of capital control rules; and enriched message formats to accommodate future innovation by linkage participants.