Launch of Real-time Payments between Singapore and India

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS, and the Reserve Bank of India, RBI, have published a joint press release to announce the launch of a new payment system linkage between Singapore and India. Specifically, the new link between Singapore’s PayNow system and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will permit customers to transfer funds between the two countries in real-time using only a „mobile phone number, UPI identity, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA)“.
Currently, only customers of the DBS Bank and Liquid Group in Singapore and of the Indian Banks ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and State Bank of India may participate in the service whereby different user groups of the Singapore entities will be gradually scoped in. Customers of the Indian banks may use the service right away. The new linkage also has incorporated all relevant local capital control rules.
To conclude, MAS notes that „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“. It will be reviewed in the future to possibly expand the scope of participating institutions and the services provided under the payment link.