The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced that Non-resident (NR) accounts and other permissible accounts with international numbers will soon be allowed to transact in UPI.
This comes after the 2018 UPI circular “Crediting/Debiting Non-Resident (NR) accounts in UPI and IMPS domestic transaction” wherein it has been permitted to transfer funds between NRE accounts and other permissible
accounts as per the extant FEMA regulation and adherence to the guidelines or instruction issued by concerned regulatory departments of RBI from time to time.
NPCI said that there has been customer demand in the ecosystem to enable UPI for the NR accounts have international number and experience the seamless and instant journey of UPI.
NPCI’s Instructions to UPI ecosystem members
NPCI has advised to the member of the UPI ecosystem non-Resident account types like NRE/NRO accounts with international mobile numbers shall be allowed to get on-boarded or transact in UPI, provided they stick to FEMA regulations and adherence to the guidelines issued by the concerned regulatory departments of Reserve Bank of India from time to time.
It also said that all the necessary Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) checks and compliance validation should be the responsibility of the remitter or beneficiary banks.
Countries with UPI support
Transaction from mobile numbers in 10 countries – Singapore (+65), Australia (+61), Canada (+1), Hong Kong (+852), Oman (+968), Qatar (+974), USA (+1), Saudi Arabia (+966), United Arab Emirates (+971) and United Kingdom (+44) will be allowed, and it will be extended to other country codes in the near future through an addendum or guidelines, said NPCI.
It also said that the UPI ecosystem members will have to comply with NPCI’s directions by April 30, 2023.