IndusInd Bank has combined with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for offering real-time cross-border payments to India using UPI IDs, for its Money Transfer Operator (MTO) partners, the bank said in a announcement to indices on Monday.
“With this initiative, IndusInd Bank has become the first Indian bank to go live on UPI for Cross Border Payments/NRI Remittances. Under this arrangement, the MTOs will be using the IndusInd Bank channel to connect with NPCI’s UPI payment systems for endorsement and cross-border payment settlement into recipient accounts," the statement read.
IndusInd Bank has started off with Thailand for Foreign Inward Remittance (FIR) through UPI. DeeMoney – a Thailand based financial solutions provider offering money transfers and foreign currency exchange facilities. Customers using DeeMoney website can easily transfer funds just by adding the beneficiary’s UPI ID.
IndusInd Bank also plans to add more partners in various other countries for cross border-payments via UPI in the near future.
Speaking about the partnership, Soumitra Sen, Head – Consumer Banking & Marketing, IndusIndBank said, “At IndusInd Bank, it’s been our continuous endeavour to bring forth path breaking propositions that provide customers with a unified banking experience. In keeping with this approach, we are proud to partner with NPCI to present the country's first UPI-based cross border remittance facility, which enables NRIs to send money to a beneficiary in India using their UPI ID through our partner Exchange Houses, Banks and Money Transfer Operators. It’s a important step towards simplifying remittances as a functionality, as individuals residing overseas will now be able to expediently transfer money to a beneficiary by simply adding their UPI ids, without having to remember their bank account details. We believe, enabling foreign payment through UPI is a major milestone towards consolidation its usage as a platform, and will go a long way in enhancing its adoption by NRIs across geographies."
Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, “We are pleased to partner with IndusInd Bank. We believe this inventiveness will offer a much simpler and more efficient remittance experience for international travellers using UPI. We are confident that our association would act as one of the major paying factors towards the evolution of cross-border payments through UPI. With UPI venturing into crossborder remittances, we are looking forward to witnessing significant growth in UPI’s transaction volumes in the years to come."
This collaboration will enable partners of IndusInd Bank to simplify remittances from Non-Resident Indians (NRI) and People of Indian Origin (PIO) living across the globe to transfer money to their NonResidential External (NRE) and Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts as well as to their families and relatives back in India.