Cross-border UPI payments in Nepal cross 100,000 within six months

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For the first time, cross-border UPI payments in Nepal have surpassed 1,00,000 person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions in less than six months since the launch in the South Asian country.

In March, NPCI Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), partnered with Nepalese payments network FonePay to enable QR-code-based person-to-merchant (P2M) UPI transactions between Nepal and India.

Under the arrangement, Indian users in Nepal can make instant UPI payments across stores in Nepal using UPI-enabled applications.

Merchants acquired by the participating members of the FonePay network can accept UPI payments from Indian customers.

“Given that Indians constitute the largest number of visitors to Nepal, we expect continued growth in UPI transactions. Furthermore, we believe this initiative will contribute significantly to the economic development of both countries,” an NPCI International spokesperson said in a statement.

NIPL has collaborated with Nepal SBI Bank Limited (NSBL) to operationalise RuPay cards in Nepal.

Meanwhile, travellers from Nepal can use UPI for their payments using NPCI’s UPI One World product.

Visitors to the country can use it to transact at merchant locations such as stores, travel booking, online shopping, grocery purchases, entertainment, hotels, restaurants, and transportation.

There is no transaction or onboarding fee levied to make payments using UPI One World.

At present, UPI is accepted in countries such as Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates.

In June, NIPL inked an agreement with the central bank of Peru to develop a UPI-like payment system in the South American country.

In May this year, the payment body entered into an agreement with the Bank of Namibia (BoN) for developing an instant payment system similar to UPI in the African nation.

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