In his speech to the Indian community in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the exciting news that France has agreed to embrace India’s highly successful payments system, UPI. “I’m delighted to announce that India and France have come to an agreement to introduce UPI in France. This initiative will commence at the iconic Eiffel Tower, enabling Indian tourists to make payments in Indian rupees,” stated PM Modi.
The introduction of UPI service in France aims to provide Indian visitors with convenient and secure transaction options. Here are further details about the significance of this development for both India and France.
- UPI will be utilized in Europe for the first time, marking a significant milestone.
- The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) International and France-based payments solution Lyra Networks have signed an MoU to facilitate UPI transactions.
- Indian students, tourists, and NRIs residing in France can conveniently utilize UPI and RuPay for making payments. They can simply use their international mobile numbers at any Lyra Networks-supported terminal to carry out transactions.
- Indian users must have a UPI-enabled bank account in India and a BHIM application or UPI-connected app to conduct UPI transactions.
- India and Singapore recently linked their digital payment systems, UPI and PayNow, to assess the impact on cross-border money flow.
- Indian and Singaporean users with accounts at participating entities like Axis, DBS, ICICI, SBI, and others from India, as well as DBS Singapore and Liquid Group from Singapore, can transact instantly using the VPA or QR flow, with instant settlement available 24×7.
- Expanding UPI to international markets aims to provide convenience and seamless payment options for Indian tourists and expatriates in these countries.
- UPI, or Unified Payments Interface, integrates multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application, offering various banking features, seamless fund routing, merchant payments, and peer-to-peer collection requests.
- The pilot launch of UPI took place on April 11, 2016, initiated by Dr. Raghuram G Rajan, Governor of the RBI, with banks subsequently uploading their UPI-enabled apps on the Google Play store starting from August 25, 2016.
- In FY 2022, PhonePe held a 46% share of UPI usage in India, followed by Google Pay with 34%.
- In addition to France and Singapore, UPI is also accessible for international use in countries like Bhutan, UAE, and Nepal.
- Countries such as Japan, Bahrain, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, and the United States have shown interest in adopting UPI.
In a previous interview, Sonal Saldanha, VP of Investments at 3one4 Capital, highlighted the significance of RuPay and UPI in India. These systems, governed by NPCI, have gained critical mass and NPCI has been at the forefront of promoting their wider acceptance. Reciprocal arrangements for RuPay acceptance have been established in numerous countries, although the market remains fragmented and there is scope for further improvement. Similar efforts are underway for UPI, including bilateral agreements with payment system operators and acceptance networks in various countries to facilitate the flow of money both inward and outward.
