In an important development, non-resident Indians (NRIs), who hold bank accounts in India but live abroad, will now be able to use the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on their international mobile numbers as well.
This is following the new guidelines that have been issued by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which permit UPI platforms to allow non-resident account types such as non-resident external (NRE)/ non-resident ordinary (NRO) accounts having international mobile numbers to get onboarded and transact through UPI. NPCI has directed all members of the UPI ecosystem to comply with the issued dirctive by April 30, 2023.
For now, NPCI will allow transactions from mobile numbers having country codes of USA, UAE, UK, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Oman, Australia, Canada, Qatar, along with the current domestic country code, as per the circular released on 10th January 2023.
UPI with international mobile numbers: Conditions accompanying the move
The NPCI circular says that the NRE or NRO account holders with international mobile numbers will be allowed to register and transact on UPI platforms if these conditions are being met.
1. Member banks have to ensure that NRE or NRO accounts are only allowed as per the extant FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) regulations and adherence to the guidelines/instructions issued by the concerned regulatory departments of RBI from time to time.
2. All necessary anti-money laundering/ combating of financing of terrorism checks and compliance validation as per the rules are to be ensured by the remitter and beneficiary banks.
India has been making giant strides towards promoting digital payments transactions with UPI. Touching new heights recently, the volume of UPI transactions touched a record 7.82 billion in December 2022, amounting to Rs 12.82 trillion, again a record high. UPI has also penetrated into the payments landscape of Nepal, Singapore, Bhutan, Malaysia, UAE, France, UK and Oman.
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