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NPCI Eyes Indian Diaspora for UPI Growth Across Overseas Markets
The operator of India’s widespread mobile payments network NPCI intends to leverage the nation’s large overseas diaspora as a launchpad for international UPI growth, seeking to establish the platform as a favored method for cross-border transactions.
“Is it possible to get 15-20 markets in the next 10 years’ time? I think that’s a top-level kind of go-to-market approach,” said Dilip Asbe, chief executive officer of the National Payments Corporation of India, which developed the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI. “The way India is self-sufficient on domestic payments, we would like to be as much self-sufficient on cross-border payments as well.”
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Asbe mentioned that NPCI is negotiating with Japan, Malaysia, and Bahrain, noting that the ultimate decision will rest with their governments and central banks because of geopolitical and regulatory considerations.
Asbe mentioned that NPCI is looking into agentic AI to facilitate payments through platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet Inc.’s Gemini.
UPI is the globe's biggest real-time payment system in terms of transaction volume, as stated by the International Monetary Fund. It has revolutionized daily transactions in India by enabling users to transfer funds instantly between bank accounts via a mobile device, circumventing card networks for numerous payments.
The initiative arises as nations pursue increased regulation of their payment systems following Western sanctions that excluded Russia from the SWIFT financial messaging network and immobilized a significant portion of its foreign-exchange reserves.
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Applications like Google Pay and PhonePe utilize UPI for processing payments in India, whereas Apple Pay is still unavailable for domestic transactions.
NPCI’s approach targets India’s 35 million diaspora, which remitted more than $155 billion back home in the fiscal year ending March, marking the highest inflow worldwide. Indians abroad have contributed to strengthening the nation's foreign-exchange reserves during times of market turbulence via special deposit programs.
“The diaspora is going to increase, travel is going to increase, the trade is going to increase,” Asbe says.
The international growth occurs as UPI’s business model is changing domestically. On Thursday, India’s lower house of Parliament passed a law permitting banks and other payment service providers to impose fees on UPI transactions. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman posted on X that the NPCI has not yet made a decision regarding any fees. A spokesperson for NPCI chose not to provide a comment.
The growth will enhance UPI's foothold in nine countries, such as Singapore, France, and the United Arab Emirates, Asbe noted. UPI presently facilitates person-to-person remittances for Singapore and Nepal, while inward remittances are permitted from Greece.
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Set up by the Reserve Bank of India alongside banks, NPCI manages the nation's retail payment systems. In addition to UPI, it oversees the RuPay card network, a local alternative to Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. NPCI is also providing the technology, as a public resource, to developing countries like Namibia, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago to assist in creating and managing a comparable system.
The initiative arises as nations pursue increased regulation of their payment systems following Western sanctions that excluded Russia from the SWIFT financial messaging network and immobilized a significant portion of its foreign-exchange reserves.
“No government would want over-dependence for critical functions like payment systems,” Asbe says. “The weaponization of the payment system has been exercised.”
