This collaboration enhances the current Unified Payments Interface (UPI) linkage between India and Singapore. As part of the cooperation, STB and PhonePe will invest in collaborative marketing initiatives across India and Singapore. The NPCI has also negotiated agreements with numerous nations, including Nepal, France, Sri Lanka, and the UAE, to take UPI worldwide, apart from Singapore.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and fintech company PhonePe have formed a two-year strategic agreement to promote UPI payments for Indian visitors to Singapore.
Indian visitors can now use the PhonePe app at over 8,000 retailers in Singapore.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Wednesday (April 3) by STB CEO Melissa Ow and Ritesh Pai, CEO of PhonePe’s International Payments Business.
This collaboration expands on the existing UPI linkage between India and Singapore, allowing consumers to perform cross-border transactions between the two countries quickly using their existing Indian bank accounts, according to PhonePe.
As part of the collaboration, STB and PhonePe will invest in combined marketing initiatives in India and Singapore.
PhonePe, owned by Walmart, currently boasts over 520 million registered customers and a digital payment acceptance network of 38 million shops. It also conducts over 230 million transactions per day, with an annualized Total Payment Value (TPV) of over $1.5 trillion.
The PhonePe Group was established in 2016 and has since grown into new consumer tech companies (Indus App Store, India’s first localized App Store), as well as financial services (Insurance, Lending, Wealth).
PhonePe added capability for cross-border UPI payments in February 2023, under the name UPI International. This enabled customers to make payments in foreign currencies directly from their bank accounts, much like international debit cards.
UPI International, launched by the National Payments Corporation of India’s cross-border subsidiary (NPCI International Payments Limited), enables UPI transactions for Indian diaspora members living overseas. The NPCI has also negotiated agreements with numerous nations, including Nepal, France, Sri Lanka, and the UAE, to take UPI worldwide apart from Singapore.
In India, transactions via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) increased 11% month on month (MoM) to 13.44 billion in March 2024 from 12.10 billion. Year on year (YoY), the transaction count increased 55% from 8.7 billion.
Based on data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the amount of transactions in March was INR 19.78 Lakh Cr, which was an increase of 8% over February’s INR 18.28 Lakh Cr. It also increased by 40% from INR 14.1 Lakh Cr a year earlier.
The NPCI and the government have taken a number of initiatives to promote UPI. To enhance UPI usage, the NPCI continues to introduce additional products and services. Over the years, it has introduced technologies such as UPI Lite, UPI credit lines, UPI LITE X, Tap & Pay, Hello! UPI, and BillPay Connect, among others.
