NRIs from 10 countries will soon be able to transact UPI funds using international numbers

The NPCI has authorized non-residents of 10 countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, to digitally transfer funds using the UPI platform from NRE/NRO accounts. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a circular that it had received requests to allow non-residents to use international mobile numbers to transact in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Accordingly, the NPCI, in a circular dated January 10, requested UPI participants to put in place a mechanism by April 30 whereby non-residents with NRE/NRO accounts will be permitted to transfer funds using their international mobile numbers.

To begin with, this facility will be available to non-residents in 10 countries – Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

While NRIs and PIOs can open Non-Resident (External) Rupee (NRE) Bank Accounts, Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) Accounts can be opened by anyone residing outside India for transactions of good faith in rupee.

The NPCI, which operates the UPI platform, said: “To begin, we will allow transactions from mobile numbers with the country code of (10 nations)…and we will expand to other codes countries in the near future…”.

Chairman of the Payments Council of India, Vishwas Patel, said the main convenience factor will be “convenience of payment/money transfer” for NRIs when visiting India.

Sarvatra Technologies Founder MD Mandar Agashe said that all these years NRIs could not access the UPI network because SIM bonding which is an important security feature of UPI was only available to NRIs. Indian SIM card phones.

“NRIs will simply have to link their NRE and NRO accounts linked to their international SIM card to UPI and use it like any other Indian UPI user for merchant payment as well as peer-to-peer payments,” Agashe said.

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