NPCI To Power Real-Time Digital Payment System (UPI) In Myanmar

• After Singapore, NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) plans to take UPI to Myanmar.
• NPCI and US-based fintech company Euronet Worldwide have submitted a proposal to the Central Bank of Myanmar to introduce a real-time payment system in the country.

After the huge success of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) in India, NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) plans to take a real-time payment system UPI to Myanmar.

According to the reports, NPCI subsidiary NPCI international and US-based digital payments service company Euronet Worldwide has submitted a joint bid to the central bank of Myanmar for building a strong real-time payment system in the country. Alongside this, building a strong QR code generation and repository system in the country.

If the proposal goes as it is expected, it will be the first among many global projects that NPCI is eyeing in the Asian countries.

"The bid could, however, face tough competition from global payments giants including Mastercard and Visa who are also known to be interested in the project, the person said requesting anonymity as the talks are private," said ET sources.

Last year, NPCI launched the BHIM UPI (Bharat For Money) payment system in Singapore at the ongoing Singapore fintech festival, which was the first launch of BHIM UPI in the global market.

NPCI (The National Payments Corporation of India) is an organization established in 2008 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). NPCI creates a nationwide standard for businesses and retail payments in the country.

Since the success of the BHIM UPI in India, NPCI has been exploring the opportunities in Asian countries such as Singapore, Myanmar, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for building strong digital infrastructure to facilitate quick and efficient payments in the country.

In November 2019, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) had signed an agreement with the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) to take BHIM UPI into the international market.

The launch of BHIM UPI in Singapore is expected to improve the digital payment system in the country. While the launch also benefited the Indian travelers who face payment options issues due to currency conversion and non-availability of cards.

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In August this year, NPCI incorporated its subsidiary NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) for building digital payments infrastructure such as BHIM UPI in the global markets.

According to Statista, Last year, Google Pay was the most used app for making UPI transactions, covering 54% of the market share in the country.

In July this year, UPI crossed 1.34 billion transactions in terms of volume with the amount worth more than 2.61 lakh crore (or about $35 billion).

As reported by NPCI, Last month, UPI crossed 1.8 billion transactions in volume closing at Rs 3.29 lakh (or about $44 billion).

According to the reports, UPI could get close to 2 billion monthly transactions in volume in this October month, this will be the highest volume of transactions ever recorded in the digital payment history.

NPCI is constantly taking strong steps to create a digital/cashless India by offering a real-time digital payment service to make digital transactions and payments much easier for the customers in the country.

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