Non-Resident Indians In These Ten Countries Can Now Access UPI, Here’s How

Expanding further outside India, the indigenously developed real-time payments solution the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will now be available for Indians living abroad, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), said in a press release on Tuesday (10 January).

The facility will now be available to Non-Resident External (NRE) and Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts using international phone numbers from 10 countries. Non-Resident Indians can now access UPI by registering using the appropriate country codes mentioned in the press release.

The countries where this service will now be available include Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, USA, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and United Kingdom.

“We have been receiving requirement from the (UPI) ecosystem with regards to the non-resident accounts and other permissible accounts having international numbers to be allowed to transact in UPI,” the NPCI statement said, adding, “And there has been customer demand in the ecosystem to enable UPI...and experience the seamless and instant journey of UPI.”

The move specially benefits the diaspora which sends billions of dollars in remittances to India. Many took to Twitter to praise the move by NPCI, one saying “no more calls from NRI friends to make UPI payments,” with others expressing their dismay that their country of residence is not on the list.

NPCI has further added safeguards against money laundering and terror financing under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and Combating of Financing of Terrorism checks. The guidelines are expected to be followed by the participants by April 30.