PayPal partners with NPCI, others to launch cross-border payments platform

PayPal's new global platform will enable UPI-based cross-border payments, backed by partners like Mercado Pago, Tenpay Global and Venmo, with rollout set for later this year

Global payments firm PayPal on Wednesday announced a partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the operator of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and others to launch a new cross-border payments platform. 

The upcoming platform, named PayPal World, will allow consumers to make cross-border payments to global businesses by enabling interoperability between local payment systems and PayPal.

 

Multiple global partners onboard

 

In addition to India’s NPCI, PayPal has onboarded Brazil’s Mercado Pago, Tencent Holdings’ Tenpay Global, and its own subsidiary Venmo as partners for the initiative.

 

PayPal World is expected to go live later this year. The company also stated that it plans to expand the partner base further over time.

 

According to PayPal, the new platform will leverage open commerce APIs and use a cloud-native, multi-region deployment architecture that ensures low latency and high availability across markets. The firm said the platform is designed with robust safety and security features, offering a device- and technology-agnostic environment.

 

NPCI sees global opportunity for UPI

 

Commenting on the partnership, NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) Managing Director and CEO Ritesh Shukla said, “The integration of UPI on PayPal World’s platform will mark a significant step in expanding UPI’s global footprint. It aligns with our vision to make cross-border payments more seamless, secure, and inclusive. This collaboration will enhance convenience for Indian users making payments abroad and enable global businesses and merchants to tap into a growing base of UPI users.”

 

UPI currently dominates India’s digital payments ecosystem, accounting for nearly 85 per cent of the country’s total retail digital transaction volume. 

 

India leads global fast payments adoption

 

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted India’s leadership in fast payments, attributing the growth to the widespread adoption of UPI. 

 

The IMF highlighted a sharp decline in cash and card usage in India since UPI’s launch in 2016, stating, “India now makes faster payments than any other country. At the same time, proxies for cash usage have fallen.”

 

UPI enables real-time inter-bank transactions via mobile devices and is now the world’s largest retail fast payment system by volume, processing more than 18 billion transactions each month.