New Delhi: Indians may soon use Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to make monetory transactions with friends and family in Europe.
In what is being considered a major development, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the interlinking of UPI with the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) of the Eurosystem on Friday.
This UPI-TIPS interlinkage will facilitate cross-border remittances between India and the Euro Area and is expected to benefit users of both jurisdictions, the RBI said in a statement.
“Reserve Bank of India and NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) have been engaging with European Central Bank on the initiative to connect UPI with the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), the instant payment system operated by the Eurosystem,” the bank added.
For quite some time now, RBI has been actively pursuing interlinking of UPI with fast payment systems of other jurisdictions to promote crossborder payments.
Such initiatives are aligned with the G20 Roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments, with a focus on cheaper, efficient, more transparent and accessible remittances.
“Reserve Bank of India and NIPL will continue to collaborate closely with European Central Bank to operationalise the UPI-TIPS link, including technical integration, risk management and settlement arrangements,” it has been said in the statement.
Meanwhile, Peru is also planning to implement an UPI-like real-time digital payments system by next year. This was announced by Peruvian ambassador Javier Manuel Paulinich Velarde recently.
NIPL and the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) had first announced a landmark partnership to introduce the real-time payments system in Peru in 2024.
This will make Peru the first South American country to adopt the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) technology.
