Jun 09, Kathmandu - India's National Payments Corporation International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Nepal's leading payment infrastructure institution - Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) have joined hands to integrate India's Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Nepal's National Payment Interface (NPI), thus initiating cross-border digital payments between India and Nepal.

With this partnership, cross-border remittances between Nepal and India will now be made in real time, securely and at low cost. Indian and Nepali users in India and Indian users in Nepal will be able to easily transfer funds between people (P2P).

Currently available in a few banks, the service will be gradually expanded to other banks. The integration between UPI-NPI is considered an important milestone in promoting financial inclusion, strong economic and digital relations.

In line with the G20’s objective of making cross-border payments easy and accessible, this integration is expected to further strengthen the long-standing social, cultural and economic ties between India and Nepal by establishing an interconnection between the fast payment systems of both countries. Indian and Nepali users will be able to send money to Nepal using their mobile numbers or Virtual Payment Addresses (VPAs).

Similarly, Indian users will be able to send money from Nepal to India using their UPI ID. This process will provide a simple, secure and convenient experience to users by eliminating the need to share sensitive bank account details.

Commenting on the partnership, Ritesh Shukla, Managing Director and CEO, NPCI International, said, “We are delighted to partner with NCHL to launch cross-border remittances between Nepal and India. With this initiative, we are committed to meeting the changing needs of the global community by leveraging the latest technology. By creating a real-time, low-cost and secure medium for cross-border remittances, we hope to facilitate remittances between both countries and also promote financial inclusion.’

Through this new service, the UPI-NPI integration will enable transactions to be completed in real-time, which will be of particular help to millions of families who depend on remittances. By reducing the costs associated with the traditional cross-border remittance system, this new service will provide transparent and efficient services to individuals and families sending cross-border funds.

Nilesh Man Singh Pradhan, CEO of Nepal Clearing House Limited, says, ‘Real-time and convenient real-time cross-border fund transfer has been successfully launched through the collaboration between Nepal and India. We are committed to working together to expand access and engage millions of individuals and businesses in both countries by expanding the latest technology and additional services in this journey of digital payments.

This collaboration between NPCI International and NCHL has further strengthened the India-Nepal Economic Corridor and marked a significant step forward in the field of digital payments.

This initiative will make the financial systems of both countries sustainable and robust, while making them secure and transparent. Through this collaboration, India and Nepal have built an effective model of interconnected, real-time payment systems that other countries are expected to follow.