Backpacking across Europe? Guess what, you can now use UPI to pay your way across Europe! Too vague? Let’s break it up a bit:
United Payments Interface, UPI as we know it, will now be accepted across Europe as National Payments Corporation of India International Payments Ltd. (NIPL) has entered a partnership with Worldline (a European multinational payment and transactional service company) to enable and accept payments made via UPI. How does this work? Well, as part of their partnership, Worldline (which uses a QR-based system) will allow POS (Points-Of-Sale) systems of merchants across Europe to accept UPI payments from Indian travelers’ mobile phones.
But the cherry on top of this bit of news is that India’s multinational finance service RuPay will soon be accepted across Europe, for both Debit and Credit cards.
WHY THE SUDDEN DEVELOPMENT?
In the post-pandemic era (COVID-19 is very much alive still, please note), we have managed to satiate our need, desire, and urge to travel far and wide as basic human nature will allow one to tolerate staying locked up for only so many hours. Furthermore, as we, in India, have observed an influx of Indians traveling abroad since the country unlocked itself after 365 days of Lockdown.
But traveling involves spending which also serves as a hassle of sorts for Indians as per Modi’s Digitization scheme, our nation has gone completely digital. With an increase in the use of online payment facilities and QR-enabled facilities such as Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe, and more, paying our way through everyday expenses has become routine for us in India. But this may not be the case abroad as Indian-origin RuPay (which has revolutionized the Make in India and Vocal for Local aspects) is not accepted in major locations outside of our borders.
However, this is the year to embrace and act on changes as 2022 is the change we all need in our lives. On the 13th of September in the year 2021, NIPL (the international counterpart of NCPI) signed an agreement with Singapore’s Liquid Group to allow UPI QR-based payments in 10 countries. This agreement would enable BHIM app users to make UPI and QR-based payments for more than 2 million merchants across Southeast and Northern parts of Asia from early 2022. According to an official statement that reads “Liquid Group integrates an extensive network of merchant acquiring partners in the 10 markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.”
But that is not all. Since the early agreements, there have been developments made among other countries as well. You may plan your itinerary according to this list as these are additions to the roster of countries now accepting UPI QR-based payments! :
- Nepal
- Singapore
- Bhutan
- Malaysia
- United Arab Emirates
- France
- United Kingdom
- Oman
- Europe
— An Article by Shreya Raolji
