Pine Labs, a merchant commerce omnichannel platform and Thomas Cook (India) Limited, India’s foreign exchange service provider, have partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), in “a pioneering initiative to ensure safe, seamless, convenient merchant payments via UPI for foreign nationals from G20 countries.”
The prepaid payment product is “issued by Pine Labs under the PPI authorization obtained from RBI. This facility can be availed on arrival – across Thomas Cook’s airport counters.”
Simple, seamless process:
- On arrival at the airport, encash foreign currency at Thomas Cook’s counter
- Instead of collecting INR in cash, Thomas Cook’s forex expert will assist the customer to open a Pine Labs Fave Money prepaid account and load the INR value
The customer then “downloads Pine Labs’ Fave app, signs in and can start using the pre-loaded INR amount by scanning any UPI QR code at merchant outlets pan India.”
On departure, any balance “can be encashed by the customer at Thomas Cook’s airport counters.”
To facilitate this process, Pine Labs has “launched Fave Money that allows travellers from G20 countries the ability to pay digitally via their mobile phone at millions of merchant establishments in India using UPI.”
The prepaid product issued by Pine Labs is “powered by its proprietary issuing platform Qwikcilver and is integrated with the Fave mobile app.”
B Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs, said:
“G20 Presidency was a proud moment for India. Resonating with its beautiful theme. ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or ‘One Earth · One Family · One Future’, we wanted to contribute towards ensuring no inconvenience comes to G20 travelers coming to India while making payments. UPI is India’s incredible contribution to the world when it comes to digital payments, and a quick onboarding on the Fave app will allow these visitors to pay digitally via UPI using our Fave mobile app. We thank our partner Thomas Cook and NPCI for this pioneering collaboration.”
Mahesh Iyer, Executive Director & CEO, Thomas Cook (India) Limited said:
“As India’s leading foreign exchange provider, we are delighted to partner with Pine Labs & NPCI to give visiting foreign nationals from G20 countries the seamless UPI experience across our gateway airports, via this collaboration.”
Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI.
“UPI One World is a game-changing offering that will revolutionize the way international travellers make payments in India. With the Fave app powered by Pine Lab’s issuing platform Qwikcilver, travelers can easily and securely make digital payments at millions of merchant establishments equipped with UPI QRs across the country. This innovative solution is yet another step forward in our mission to make digital payments more accessible and convenient for people everywhere. We are delighted to support this initiative by Pine Labs and Thomas Cook,”
As noted in the update, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is a non-profit organization that “operates India’s retail payments and settlement systems.”
Established in 2008, NPCI offers “a range of payment solutions such as UPI, IMPS, BHIM, NETC, and RuPay, with UPI being the most popular.”
It allows users “to transfer money from one bank account to another in real-time using their mobile phones.”
NPCI’s goal is “to create a robust payments infrastructure, promote digital payments, financial inclusion, and innovation in the payments space.”
NPCI has played “a significant role in India’s digital payments revolution, transforming the way people make payments and manage their finances.”