Govt, NPCI need to develop use cases to expand UPI globally: Pay10 founder

To expand UPI globally, the government and NPCI must create stronger merchant use cases and ensure faster settlement cycles, especially for small overseas businesses, Pay10 founder said

The government, as well as the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), needs to develop use cases that encourage merchants in foreign countries to seamlessly start accepting the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Prabhpreet Singh Gill, founder and chief executive officer of global payments gateway service provider Pay10, said.

 

“The business use case is still lacking for UPI being accepted internationally. In India, when you use UPI to make a payment, the settlement is almost instant, which contributes to its widespread use. When a tourist wants to use UPI in a country which allows it, they interact either with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or retail merchants. For such merchants, the settlement cannot be delayed,” Gill said.

 

Payment systems such as UPI have raised substantial awareness among merchants globally that instant settlement for payments is possible. To accelerate UPI adoption worldwide, NPCI should ensure fair settlement timelines, especially for small merchants in these countries, he said.

 

The company, which is working with regulators across 16 countries and plans launches in these geographies from 2026 onwards, believes that differences in norms across payments regulators and central banks globally are less than 10 per cent, Gill said.

 

As an Indian company, Pay10 is well prepared for global regulatory requirements in the financial technology space, as domestic regulators set high standards for audits, payment settlements and know-your-customer norms, among others, he added.

 

To become a truly globally interoperable payment services provider, Pay10 will have to work closely with regulators worldwide by adhering to local norms and obtaining licences in each region, Gill said.

 

“So, if a regulator such as the Reserve Bank of India asks us to adhere to certain norms, we implement that norm as a default across all our independent units operating globally, even if they are outside India. That way, each norm becomes the baseline for us to build on,” he said.

 

Though compliance entails costs, Pay10 is willing to absorb a marginal impact on business if it helps reduce fraud, Gill said.

 

“We don’t see compliance as a hurdle. We embrace it and move ahead with it. That is how we are able to work successfully with regulators across the globe,” he added.