Singapore and India have launched a real-time payment link to facilitate cross-border payments between the two countries, using India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow. The linkage allows financial institutions in both countries to send and receive funds between e-wallets and bank accounts in real-time. The PayNow-UPI linkage is the world’s first real-time payment system linkage that uses scalable cloud-based infrastructure that can accommodate future increases in remittance traffic. Lowering the remittance costs for foreign workers residing in Singapore and India, the PayNow-UPI linkage provides an opportunity to contribute more to trade between both countries. The linkage system allows Indian users of State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, DBS India, Overseas Bank, and Indian Bank to facilitate transactions, which is expected to be expanded further.
