India and Singapore have announced the linking of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow, in order to enable users to make instant, low-cost fund transfers.

• The project to link the fast payment systems of both the countries was announced by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
• This linked payment interface is expected to be operationalised by July 2022.
• Linked interface will help in making instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without onboarding onto the other payment system.

The linkage will be a significant milestone for the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between both the countries. It will also align with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities to provide for faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments.

It is a mobile-based fast payment system, facilitating the customers to make round the clock payments instantly by using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA). VPA is created by the customer. This system eliminates the risk of sharing bank account details by remitter. This mechanism supports Person-to-Person (P2P) as well as Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payments and enables users to send or receive money.

It is the fast payment system of Singapore, enabling peer-to-peer funds transfer service. It is available for retail customers with the help of participating banks & Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NFIs) in Singapore. It provides the users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another by using their mobile number, Singapore NRIC/FIN, or VPA.