Shri Gunveer Singh, Chief General Manager of the Reserve Bank of India’s Department of Payment and Settlement Systems, expressed India’s eagerness to deepen cooperation with the UAE in the realm of digital payments. He highlighted the importance of such collaboration due to geographical proximity and the substantial Indian community in the UAE.
Singh noted that both nations have taken steps towards cooperation, including signing two MoUs in July 2023, aimed at promoting the use of national currencies for bilateral trade and linking payment and financial messaging systems. He expressed confidence in their ability to further advance digital payments, making them more efficient and convenient.
In July 2023, President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, oversaw the exchange of two MoUs between the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The first MoU outlines a framework to facilitate trade settlements in UAE dirhams and Indian rupees, while the second aims to integrate participants into the services of IPPs and local payment card schemes through direct integration, ensuring regulatory compliance in both countries.
Singh also highlighted India’s remarkable achievement with its unified payments interface (UPI), surpassing 10 billion transactions within a month in August, reaching a total of 10.58 billion transactions.