UPI facility for NRO and NRE a/c from April

NEW DELHI: From April 30 this year, international mobile numbers from Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and UK will be able to access Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction facility. It will be available through non-resident external (NRE) and non-resident ordinary (NRO) accounts.

Due to increasing remittances to India, NIPL with Western Union are integrating UPI to help the Indian diaspora receive and send money abroad with ease.

IndusInd Bank and Thailandbased financial service provider DeeMoney are using UPI ID to verify customers in India for cross border transaction. This is part of Money Transfer Operator (MTO) partners programme of NPCI.

IndusInd Bank is planning to collaborate with more foreign entities to increase acceptability of UPI abroad. NIPL had last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Netherlands-based Terra Payment Services to help UPI users receive international payments from around the globe in real time.

To save the cost borne by Indians living abroad when sending money back home, NPCI is planning to move 32 million expatriate population from SWIFT to UPI. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and removal of Russian banks from SWIFT made development of an alternative all the more important.