The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced a significant development, enabling the use of RuPay card and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for global e-commerce payments.
This change would make it easier for Indian consumers to shop on overseas e-commerce sites and pay using their RuPay card or UPI-enabled mobile app.
“This is a significant milestone for NPCI and the Indian payments ecosystem. It will enable millions of Indian consumers to use their preferred payment instruments for cross-border e-commerce transactions, thereby promoting financial inclusion and digital empowerment,” said Dilip Asbe, CEO of NPCI International Payments Limited.
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The NPCI has announced that it will handle cross-border transactions using the RuPay card and UPI. This will be done through the international payment networks of its partner card schemes and payment service providers.
The NPCI has extensively promoted the usage of the RuPay card and UPI in India, with notable success in growing their acceptance in the country. More than half of India’s point-of-sale terminals now accept the RuPay card. While UPI has emerged as the country’s most popular payment option for peer-to-peer and merchant payments.
The NPCI’s new statement intends to extend the reach of these payment tools beyond India, making them available to millions more users globally.
According to Morgan Stanley, this move is likely to offer a significant boost to the Indian e-commerce market, which is estimated to reach $200 billion by 2026. It would also make it easier and more convenient for Indian consumers to purchase worldwide using their chosen payment methods.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which is controlled by a consortium of Indian banks. It has been in the forefront of this drive towards digital payments. In 2012, it introduced the RuPay card as a domestic alternative to international card networks such as Visa and Mastercard. Over 1,260 banks in India issue cards, which has over 900 million cards in circulation.
In 2016, NPCI launched the UPI as a mobile-based payment system enabling direct transfer of money from one bank account to another. The system has seen tremendous growth in India, people completed over 8.7 billion UPI transactions in March 2023, the most since it’s establishment.
