India and Singapore on Tuesday launched the linkage between Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Singapore's PayNow to enable cost-efficient, fast, and safe transfer of cross-border remittances. PM Narendra Modi and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong virtually witnessed the launch of cross-border connectivity. According to official information, the link was launched during the virtual ceremony by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das and Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), by symbolically transferring funds to each other from the mobile phones.

For India, the connection between UPI and PayNow is the first cross-border person-to-person (P2P) payment link and the second for Singapore.

PM Narendra Modi said that the connection between UPI and PayNow is a gift to the citizens of both countries with a cheaper and real-time facility for remittances. This facility will benefit our overseas brothers and sisters, students, professionals, and their families. With this linkage, a new chapter opens in cross-border fintech connectivity.

Now, citizens can send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets in real time by using their UPI ID, mobile phone number, or virtual payment address (VPA).

The banks participating from the Indian side are ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, DBS India, Indian Bank, State Bank of India, and Indian Overseas Bank. From the Singapore side, the participants are Liquid Group and DBS.

Through the new link, Indians can transfer upto a maximum of  Rs. 60,000 a day, and Singapore's DBS allows its selected customers to transfer up to 200 per transaction. By the 31^st of March, DBS allows all its customers to transfer upto SGD1000.

Deputy Governor of RBI, T Rabi Shankar, said that linking the payment networks across borders was a part of the G20 agenda to minimize the costs of cross-border remittances. He also added that currently, transfers happen through banks but attract a certain cost and time as India is a country with capital controls.