UPI-PayNow

Overview

The UPI-PayNow Linkage is a cross-border real-time payment connection between India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore's PayNow instant transfer system. It allows users in either country to send funds directly between bank accounts or e-wallets using a recipient's mobile phone number, UPI identity, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA), with the transfer completing in near real time [2]. Launched on 21 February 2023, it is India's first cross-border real-time payment systems linkage and Singapore's second such arrangement [2]. It is also described as the world's first such linkage to feature cloud-based infrastructure and participation by non-bank financial institutions [2]. The corridor it serves carries over US$1 billion in cross-border retail payments and remittances annually [2]. Within India's reference corpus, Singapore is listed as the first foreign system connected to UPI [[../countries/IN-india.md]], and PayNow is documented as a national instant bank-to-bank QR transfer service operated by the Association of Banks in Singapore [[../countries/SG-singapore.md]].

History

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) jointly developed the linkage, working with payment system operators, payment scheme owners, bankers' associations, and financial institutions in both countries [2]. The connection went live on 21 February 2023 in a ceremony at which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched the first cross-border transactions [1][2]. India's National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) — and its international arm, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) — operates the UPI side; PayNow is the Singapore side [1][3].

The service expanded after launch. Initially only selected DBS Singapore customers could transact, with a launch cap of SGD 200 per transaction and SGD 500 per day; by 31 March 2023 the service was available to all DBS customers at higher limits [1]. In January 2024 NPCI further expanded the linkage by adding more participating Indian banks [3].

Technical specification

Linkage model. A sender uses a familiar local identifier rather than entering foreign bank details. From Singapore, a PayNow user can pay an Indian recipient by entering the recipient's UPI ID/VPA; from India, a UPI user can pay a Singapore recipient by entering the recipient's PayNow-registered mobile number [1]. The system resolves the proxy to the underlying account and routes the payment across the two domestic rails [1].

Identifiers. Supported routing keys are the recipient's mobile phone number, UPI identity (VPA), or Virtual Payment Address [1]. PayNow itself is keyed to mobile number, NRIC/FIN, or UEN [[../countries/SG-singapore.md]].

Infrastructure. The linkage runs on cloud-based infrastructure — a first for such an interlinkage — and admits non-bank financial institutions as participants [2].

FX and limits. Transfers settle directly between bank accounts/e-wallets [2]. At expanded availability (from 31 March 2023), DBS customers could send up to SGD 1,000 and Indian customers could remit up to Rs 60,000 per day (roughly SGD 1,000 equivalent) [1].

Use cases

• Remittances. The primary use is person-to-person remittance across the India–Singapore corridor, which carries over US$1 billion annually [2]. The linkage targets the large Indian diaspora, students, and migrant workers in Singapore who send money home [1].
• Both directions. Unlike merchant-acceptance linkages, this is a bidirectional account-to-account service: Singapore users pay Indian recipients and Indian users pay Singapore recipients [1].

Implementations

Singapore-side participants at and after launch were DBS Bank and Liquid Group [1]. India-side participants were Axis Bank, DBS India, ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, and State Bank of India [1], with additional banks added in the January 2024 expansion [3]. In Singapore the underlying PayNow rail is integrated into major bank apps and SGQR [[../countries/SG-singapore.md]].

Comparison

The UPI-PayNow linkage is the template for India's later bilateral connections. Unlike the merchant-QR acceptance models used for Sri Lanka (UPI at LankaQR merchants) and Cambodia (UPI at KHQR merchants), UPI-PayNow is a true two-way account-to-account remittance linkage between two national instant payment systems, addressed by proxy identifiers rather than by scanning a foreign merchant QR [1][2]. It predates the multilateral Project Nexus / Nexus Global Payments approach (which connects Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and India through a single hub); UPI-PayNow remains a standalone bilateral arrangement [[../countries/SG-singapore.md]]. Compared with the UPI-TIPS effort (India–Euro Area, still in realisation as of 2025), UPI-PayNow is fully live and operational [2].

Fun facts

• It is billed as the world's first cross-border real-time payment linkage to use cloud-based infrastructure [2].
• It was India's first-ever cross-border real-time payment systems linkage [2].

Status

Live since 21 February 2023 and progressively expanded — limits raised by March 2023 and more Indian banks added in January 2024 [1][3]. The India corpus records Singapore as an active UPI-connected market [[../countries/IN-india.md]], and Singapore's report lists the PayNow-UPI linkage as operational [[../countries/SG-singapore.md]].

Sources

1 Launch of Real-time Payments between Singapore and India — Monetary Authority of Singapore, 2023 2 PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Launch of the PayNow-UPI Linkage — Prime Minister's Office Singapore, 2023 3 NPCI expands UPI's linkage with Singapore's PayNow — Business Standard, 2024

Deployments

Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):

• IN — IN-india.md

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

• India–Singapore