In August, the Indian alternative payment platform RuPay was introduced to the United Arab Emirates by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Now, the NPCI says that it will allow holders of NRI bank accounts to be able to receive and send money instantaneously via their smartphones without having to enter net banking credentials or bank account information.
The capability is the result of a new payments interface called the Unified Payments Interface.
The NPCI’s chief operating officer Praveena Rai said that the system is able to power several bank accounts into just one mobile application for any participating bank.
Several features will be merged under a single umbrella, including the likes of merchant payments and seamless fund routing.
UPI and RuPay are the pillars of the payment system in India, said Rai, who was speaking at a press conference.
Rai said that the feature has been designed for NRIs who work outside of their home country.
The feature allows them to have money transferred in real time to family members and others in India via their smartphones.
Receiving money from overseas nations can often be time-consuming, Rai admitted, but the process is now much faster and easier because of UPI 2.0.
The UAE is the first Middle East country to launch the RuPay system.
Around 175,000 merchant locations across 21 business houses are expected to accept the credit card once it is fully operational.
The RuPay card will also be accepted by up to as many as 5,000 ATMs within the UAE.
The alternative payment platform from India is now taking on worldwide payment giants such as Mastercard and Visa.
RuPay debit and credit cards are expected to start being issued soon in the UAE by Emirates NBD, the Bank of Baroda and the First Abu Dhabi Bank.
RuPay debit and credit cards are currently being issued by more than 1,100 banks and have more than 600 million customers.
UPI is starting to become an increasingly preferred payment method due to the fact that its architecture is seamless, secure and simple.
The method is increasingly supported by the likes of banks, fintechs, consumers and other ecosystem participants.
Rai added that the UAE is one of RuPay’s most important strategic growth markets internationally.
India is currently the biggest trading partner of the UAE, with the UAE being the third biggest trading partner to India.
A number of companies in the UAE invested in India last year.
The bilateral trade between the two nations is expected to reach more than $100bn by next year.
Data from the UAE Central Bank suggests that India received as much as Dh13.6bn in cash sent via banks and exchange houses just in Q4 of last year alone.
New NRI instant remittance system revealedThe RuPay card, as with any other credit card in the UAE, should be used responsibly and paid back as soon as possible in order to avoid the user accumulating an unsustainable level of financial debt.
