Bangalore: After Singapore, RBI Negotiations are underway with several countries, including Indonesia, the UAE and Mauritius, to establish a UPI direct payment link (Unified Interface) to build networks in these countries for faster and cheaper money transfers using mobile phones.
Some Latin American countries have also shown interest, a senior RBI official told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. The central bank is presenting UPI and a central bank digital currency (CBDC), or digital rupee, to delegates and allowing foreigners to use UPI.
Regulators and governments are keen to expand the UPI payment link to help transfer funds and eliminate the high fees charged by banks and reduce the time it takes. The move is seen as particularly beneficial to the Indian diaspora.
Non-resident Indians will also start using UPI next month, which will allow access to the facility through international phone numbers, RBI officials said. Although the tool was enabled, it could not be implemented due to technical issues.
When asked about central bank digital currencies, RBI officials said they were trying to ramp up the pilots significantly to cover as many cases as possible in closed user groups. On the retail side, pilots are underway in several cities and the RBI is now looking to expand to more regions and include more banks.
“This is not to keep banks and other institutions away from the existing negotiated transaction system Gilts Order Matching System. We are now considering wholesale CBDC on a distributed ledger for other use cases, possibly money market transactions,” an official said .
Some Latin American countries have also shown interest, a senior RBI official told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. The central bank is presenting UPI and a central bank digital currency (CBDC), or digital rupee, to delegates and allowing foreigners to use UPI.
Regulators and governments are keen to expand the UPI payment link to help transfer funds and eliminate the high fees charged by banks and reduce the time it takes. The move is seen as particularly beneficial to the Indian diaspora.
Non-resident Indians will also start using UPI next month, which will allow access to the facility through international phone numbers, RBI officials said. Although the tool was enabled, it could not be implemented due to technical issues.
When asked about central bank digital currencies, RBI officials said they were trying to ramp up the pilots significantly to cover as many cases as possible in closed user groups. On the retail side, pilots are underway in several cities and the RBI is now looking to expand to more regions and include more banks.
“This is not to keep banks and other institutions away from the existing negotiated transaction system Gilts Order Matching System. We are now considering wholesale CBDC on a distributed ledger for other use cases, possibly money market transactions,” an official said .