Digital payments giant aims for fast remittance option for Indians abroad

NEW DELHI • The company that built India's digital payments backbone plans to make it cheaper and easier for the nation's 32 million expatriates to bring their money home.

Indians overseas remitted US$87 billion (S$122 billion) last year, the biggest inflow for any country tracked by the World Bank.

The remittances market, where it costs US$13 on average to send US$200 across borders, is ripe for disruption, according to Mr Ritesh Shukla, chief executive of NPCI International Payments.

"We have displaced cash in India to a large extent and are now looking to repeat the success in cross-border corridors," said Mr Shukla.

"Overseas Indians can use our rails to remit money inwards straightaway into their bank accounts, and for the markets where Indians travel frequently, we will build acceptance for our instruments."

Successful overseas forays by NPCI would give India a home-grown alternative to Swift, the Belgium-based cross-border payment system operator, though Mr Shukla stressed that the objective was not to displace existing platforms.

About 330 banks and 25 apps - including Google Pay and WhatsApp - share NPCI's unified payments interface (UPI), which has helped make instantaneous digital transactions a US$3 trillion market in India.

NPCI is in the process of connecting the UPI platform to systems in other countries to replicate its domestic success. It is negotiating tie-ups with governments, fintech firms and service providers around the world, aiming to reduce transaction costs and enable more small-ticket transactions.

"This is going to take the payments world by storm," said Mr Mayank Goyal, CEO of moneyHop, a cross-border banking app that lets users make international remittances through the Swift network.

The company will seek to integrate UPI rails into the app as it makes cross-border payments easier, Mr Goyal added.

UPI's linkage with overseas nations will further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the countries and lower the cost of cross-border remittances, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a report.

RBI set up NPCI along with the country's lenders to make retail payments faster, more accessible and cost-efficient. A user just needs a virtual payment address to instantly transact with vendors and exchange cash with friends or family members.

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