Bengaluru: The Bengaluru-based digital payments and financial technology company, PhonePe has announced to expand its service cross borders to allow its users to be able to use Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in five selected countries.
With this move, PhonePe users can pay international merchants using UPI, which is similar to international card payments. The selected five countries are: the UAE, Nepal, Singapore, Mauritius, and Bhutan.
“The current launch supports all international merchant outlets in the UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal, and Bhutan that have a local QR code,” the statement said, adding that PhonePe is the first fintech app to launch this feature in India.
UPI International is the first major step in letting the rest of the world experience UPI too. I am sure this launch will prove to be a game-changer and will completely transform the way Indians travelling overseas pay at merchant outlets abroad,” PhonePe CTO and Co-Founder, Rahul Chari said.
A PhonePe user can activate the bank account that is linked to UPI for UPI international on the app. The company said this can either be done at the location where they wish to make the payment or prior to the trip and requires the user to enter the UPI pin to activate the service. With this facility, a customer wouldn’t need a credit card or forex card for making payments outside India.
Earlier last month, the National Payments Corporation of India said that NRIs from 10 countries—Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the United Kingdom—will soon be allowed to make UPI payments without an Indian phone number.
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