PPRO, the digital payments infrastructure provider, has signed a strategic agreement with NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) in order “to offer global partners access to Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s fastest-growing, real-time payment system, for cross-border transactions.”
This latest agreement, “supported by a new framework co-developed with NIPL, paves the way for the first merchants to go live in the coming months.”
By connecting directly “to UPI via PPRO’s digital payments infrastructure, international payment service providers (PSPs) enable merchants to tap into India’s huge online consumer base easily and securely, without the need for setting up a legal entity in India, settlement to an India-based bank or for uploading invoices to clear funds.”
For consumers, this means they “can seamlessly make cross-border purchases in Indian Rupees using their favourite payment method.”
Launched in 2016, UPI is India’s most widely-used instant payment system, “processing 60% of all domestic payments.”
It reportedly “has over 325 million active users, supports 390 banks and 100 third-party apps within a single mobile application.”
In March 2023 alone, UPI processed “over 8.7 billion transactions, the highest since its launch.”
Simon Black, CEO at PPRO, said:
“International payment service providers and their merchants can now easily tap into an e-commerce market that is expected to reach an estimated $111 billion next year1, and predicted to almost double to $200 billion by 20262. By integrating UPI into PPRO’s digital payments infrastructure through a single connection, we have removed all the operational complexity for our partners to sell cross-border into India at scale.”
Ritesh Shukla, CEO at NIPL, said:
“UPI has revolutionised the digital payments landscape in India and is respected globally for its role in simplifying and democratising payments. By partnering with PPRO, a market leader in the payments infrastructure space, which powers a vast PSP and merchant network, Indian consumers will now be able to shop online with merchants around the world and pay safely and easily using UPI.”
This announcement follows “the signing of a memorandum of understanding by both parties in 2021 when PPRO was first mandated by NIPL to enable global PSPs and merchants to expand into India’s e-commerce market by offering UPI.”