NPCI to develop UPI-like payment system for Trinidad and Tobago

  • Oct, Thu, 2024
  • ICTS


NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) announced a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) of Trinidad and Tobago to develop a real-time payments platform similar to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), on September 27. This makes Trinidad and Tobago the first Caribbean nation to adopt UPI.

The platform will enable real-time payments for both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions, NPCI stated in a press release. The partnership is aimed at expanding digital payments in the country and fostering financial inclusion by leveraging the technology and experiences from India’s UPI system.

The Spokesperson of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Trinidad and Tobago, said that the partnership will encourage, “innovation in the Fintech sector, enhance the technical resiliency of the current payment infrastructure by providing a complementary, non-competing digital payments platform with increased security through the reduced use of cash.” Further, he stated that the successful implementation of the payment platform will contribute to the financial inclusion of Trinidad and Tobago’s unbanked citizens.

Colm Imbert, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Finance, has previously cited India as a country to emulate for increasing financial inclusion. At the launch of the country’s National Financial Inclusion Survey Report in August 2024, he said, “Countries like India, which previously had a large financially underserved population, have become major players in the digital payment space, outpacing its allies and rivals. In 2022, 46% of real-time global digital transactions took place in India, and the nation has become the second-largest digital market in the world, closing in on China in first place. Indeed, as the world continues to become cashless, Indian software could dominate the financial world.”

Other countries adopting UPI

The NIPL also announced a partnership with the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) to enable the deployment of a UPI-like real-time payments system in Peru allowing instant payments between individuals and businesses, reducing reliance on cash-based transactions and serving Peru’s large unbanked population.

Similarly, the NIPL also partnered with the Bank of Namibia to enhance Namibia’s financial infrastructure by developing a payment system similar to UPI. Ritesh Shukla, CEO, NPCI International said that the collaboration could improve financial access for underserved populations.

Advertisements

In addition to creating new systems, NIPL has also partnered with banks and merchants in several countries to enable UPI transactions at select merchant locations in a bid to benefit Indians travelling abroad, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Nepal, and Bhutan.

Expanding UPI internationally is also a priority for the RBI. In the annual RBI report, the Central Bank stated that it would be working with NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL) to expand UPI to 20 countries by 2028-29. In its Report on Currency and Finance 2023-24, it suggested that UPI could be pitched as a product to countries exploring readymade Fast Payment System (FPS) to adopt. It also stated that India can provide technical assistance to standardise processes and protocols across countries to make them compatible with the UPI.

Also Read:



Source link