NPCI's International Arm Plans To Expand UPI To 4-6 New Countries In 2025

Currently, UPI payments are accepted in seven countries, including Bhutan, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and France. A total of 20 apps support international UPI transactions.

The organisation is currently collaborating with nations like the United Arab Emirates and Mauritius to create domestic card schemes similar to India’s RuPay

Source : Paytm Blog

NPCI International Payments (NIPL), the entity tasked with expanding NPCI’s homegrown payment products globally, is working to extend the reach of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to four to six additional countries in 2025, up from the current seven, according to Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NIPL.

NIPL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), aims to launch UPI in countries that are key destinations for Indian tourists, such as Qatar, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations.

"While NPCI in India works at a breakneck speed, we have partners outside India who have their own way of completing projects. We are hopeful of going live in 3–4 more countries (next year), and if projects are completed on time, six countries is what we are looking at," said Shukla at the Moneycontrol Fintech Conclave.

Currently, UPI payments are accepted in seven countries, including Bhutan, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and France. A total of 20 apps, including third-party applications like BHIM, PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay, support international UPI transactions.

“We are now looking at building traction in the markets where we have gone live. This means creating awareness on both sides—merchants and peers. We are working with banks in India to educate customers on using UPI internationally, working with fintechs to create notifications as users land in foreign markets, and we are live in six airports at international terminals,” Shukla added.

In addition to expanding UPI’s global footprint, NIPL has partnered with countries like Peru, Namibia, and Trinidad and Tobago to develop payment systems similar to India’s real-time payment infrastructure.

“On an infrastructure level, we are helping other countries become sovereign in their domestic payment needs. Once these systems are ready and thriving, we will look to connect them with India to serve cross-border flows on a bilateral basis between two markets,” Shukla said. 

The organisation is currently collaborating with nations like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Mauritius to create domestic card schemes similar to India’s RuPay.

NIPL targets international use cases such as peer-to-peer (P2P) and peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions, similar to UPI’s structure in India. For P2P transactions, NIPL employs a dual approach involving bilateral and multilateral efforts.

"For instance, in bilateral efforts, we have connected UPI in India with PayNow in Singapore. We are in discussions with Aani, the UAE’s fast payment system similar to UPI. We are ready with another country, whose launch will happen in a month or so," Shukla added.

The multilateral component includes initiatives like Project Nexus, a collaborative effort under the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The BIS Innovation Hub is partnering with the central banks of India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand to implement the project, aiming to connect instant payment systems (IPS) across countries.