Linking of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow
Part of: Prelims and GS III – Economy
Context The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced a project to link their respective fast payment systems — Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow.
PayNow is the fast payment system of Singapore that enables peer-to-peer fund-transfer service.
The linkage is targeted to be operationalised by July 2022.
The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of each of the two fast-payment systems to make instant, low-cost, cross-border fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without a need to get on boarded onto the other payment system.
It facilitates customers to make round-the-clock payments instantly using a virtual payment address created by the customer.
UPI allows a customer to pay directly from a bank account to different merchants, both online and offline, without the hassle of typing card or bank details.
It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience.
More than 100 million UPI QRs have been created in the last 5 years
BHIM UPI in 2020-21 has processed 22 billion transactions worth Rs 41 lakh crore.
