PhonePe, which has the highest share in UPI transactions, has now enabled payments abroad, making it the first fintech platform in India to have such a facility. Indians travelling abroad can now pay foreign merchants using UPI.
Under this facility, foreign currency will be deducted from the user’s bank account, which is similar to international debit card transactions. PhonePe said all international merchant outlets in the UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal and Bhutan that have a local QR code are supported. The facility is expected to roll out in more countries.
Rahul Chari, co-founder and CTO of PhonePe, said, “UPI international is the first major step in letting the rest of the world experience UPI, too. I am sure this launch will prove to be a gamechanger and will completely transform the way Indians traveling overseas pay at merchant outlets abroad.”
The bank account can be activated for UPI international on the app. It can either be done at the location where the user wishs to make the payment or prior to the trip. With this facility, a customer will not need a credit card or forex card for making payments outside India.
As per reports in July last year, NPCI’s International Payments CEO Ritesh Shukla said it is planning to take the unified payments interface (UPI) to the overseas markets. It can be a home-grown alternative to SWIFT, which is a Belgium-based cross-border payment system operator.
In the domestic UPI market, four apps — PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm and CRED Pay — command 96.4 per cent of the overall UPI market. PhonePe has the highest share in total UPI transactions in India with about 49 per cent pie, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (UPI). PhonePe was followed by Google Pay with 34 per cent share, Paytm (11 per cent), CRED Pay (1.8 per cent) and others (WhatsApp, Amazon Pay and banking apps) with 3.5 per cent share.
Payments through UPI in January 2023 hit Rs 12.98 lakh crore in value, at par with December 2022, according to data from the NPCI.
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