UPI expands; Indian flyers to UK to enjoy hassle-free digital transactions

Expanding further outside India, the indigenously developed real-time payments solution UPI will foray into the UK market starting with QR code-based transactions.

The NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has forged a partnership with payments solutions provider PayXpert to internationalise the acceptance of its payment solutions in the UK.

NIPL is the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) which developed the world's largest real-time payment solution the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the RuPay card scheme.

"This collaboration will make the Indian payment solutions available in the UK on all PayXpert's android point-of-sale (POS) devices for in-store payments, starting with UPI-based QR code payments and later integrating the possibility for RuPay card payments," NPCI said in a release on Thursday.

Counted as one of the most successful Real-Time Payments (RTP) systems globally, UPI clocked a volume of USD 940 billion (39 billion transactions) in 2021, equivalent to 31 per cent of India's GDP.

RuPay is the domestically developed global card payment network in India with over 70 crore (700 million) cards issued to date.

David Armstrong, Managing Director, PayXpert in the UK, said the foray of UPI and RuPay will open up a new field of opportunity for the company in the UK. It will further strengthen the capability of company's solution for UK merchants, he said.

NPCI said over 5 lakh Indians, including over 1 lakh students, travel to the UK every year.

It said this number is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years.

The partnership will provide Indian travellers a familiar and convenient way to make payments in the UK.

NPCI said the UPI and RuPay payment options are set to benefit both consumers and retailers across the UK, while providing a welcome boost to commerce across the retail, hospitality and tourism sectors.

"With this development, Indians travelling to the UK will be able to enjoy the benefits of UPI's payments platform through PayXpert's POS devices. This collaboration is an important milestone for us and we plan on augmenting the facility of RuPay card payments in the near future," Anubhav Sharma, Head International Business - Partnership, Business Development & Marketing, NPCI International, said.

In July 2021, Bhutan became the first country to adopt Unified Payment Interface standards for NPCI's QR deployment, and the only country to accept RuPay cards.

Earlier in February this year, the UPI forayed into another neighbourhood country Nepal in a move aimed at bolstering real-time digital transactions.