Google Pay partners with NPCI to make UPI payments available in more countries

Google India has announced a partnership with National Payments Corporation of India International Payments Limited (NIPL). As a part of this partnership, the two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand the availability of United Payments Interface (UPI) payments outside India.

According to the details shared by NPCI, this partnership has three key objectives. The first is to broaden the use of UPI payments for travelers outside of India. The second is to help other countries in establishing UPI-like digital payment systems in their territories. In addition to this, the partnership also aims to make it easier for UPI users to share remittances between countries.

NPCI says that this partnership will help in accelerating “UPI’s global acceptance, providing foreign merchants access to Indian customers who will no longer have to rely only on foreign currency and/or, credit or forex cards for making digital payments and will have the option using UPI powered Apps from India including Google Pay.”

“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. We are very excited about the scope of this collaboration,” Deeksha Kaushal, Director, Partnerships,Google Pay India said on the occasion.

“Ritesh Shukla, CEO – NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), said, “We are pleased to team up with Google Pay to propel UPI onto the global stage. This strategic partnership will not only simplify foreign transactions for Indian travelers but will also allow us to extend our knowledge and expertise of operating a successful digital payments ecosystem to other countries,” Ritesh Shukla, CEO – NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) added.

How will this partnership benefit UPI users?

This partnership has several benefits to the users. As of now when Indian citizens travel outside the country, they need to either use forex cards or foreign currency to make payments. But with NPCI and Google Pay expanding UPI support to more countries, Indian citizens will be able to make payments in foreign countries as they do in India. It will also make it easier for people to send money from India to a foreign nation and vice versa. For other nations, UPI adoption will increase the ease of making payments and provide a boost to digital transactions.