NEW DELHI, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- India and Singapore on Tuesday launched a real-time payment linkage to facilitate people of both sides to make instant online payments through mobile phones with the help of India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore's PayNow.

Thus, Singapore became the first country with which India's cross-border person-to-person (P2P) payment facility has been launched, said an official statement issued by the federal government.

Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, India's central bank, Shaktikanta Das and Managing Director of Singapore's Monetary Authority Ravi Menon made live cross-border transactions to each other using their respective mobile phones.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong participated in the virtual launch of real-time payment linkage.

"This will help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers/students and bring the benefits of digitalization and Fintech to the common man through instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice versa. Acceptance of UPI payments through QR codes is already available in selected merchant outlets in Singapore," said the official statement.

The virtual launch was preceded by a phone call between the two prime ministers, wherein discussions were held on areas of mutual interest.

The UPI is India's mobile-based fast payment system which facilitates customers to make instant payments around the clock, using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA). It eliminates the risk of sharing bank account details by the remitter. The UPI supports both P2P and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments, and it also enables a user to send or receive money. Enditem

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