NPCI to sign pact with Al Etihad Payments

NPCI International Payments Ltd, the international arm of the National Payment Corporation of India, will ink an agreement with Al Etihad Payments on Thursday in Abu Dhabi to facilitate cross-border transactions, an official said.

The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) will be signed on the development of the domestic card scheme of UAE based on India's RuPay debit and credit card stack, the official added.

The agreement will be signed in the presence of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who is leading a business delegation to Abu Dhabi from October 5 to October 6.

Goyal will co-chair the eleventh meeting of India-UAE High-Level Task Force on Investments along with Sheikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

The meeting will be attended by Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Minister of Investment, MD and CEO of ADQ; Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade; Khaled Mohamed Balama, Governor of the Central Bank of the UAE; and Ambassadors of both countries (Abdulnasser Alshaali, UAE Ambassador to India, and Sunjay Sudhir, Ambassador of India to UAE).

Goyal will also hold bilateral meetings with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO and MD, Mubadala, besides members of UAE-India Business Council, top business leaders from both countries and major food importers from GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and Egypt.

In 2022, the National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation that offers UPI services, signed an MoU with France's fast and secure online payment system, called Lyra.

In 2023, UPI and Singapore's PayNow signed an agreement, allowing users in either country to make cross-border transactions.

The UAE, Bhutan, and Nepal have already adopted the UPI payment system.

NPCI International is in talks to extend UPI services in the US, European countries, and West Asia.

UPI is an instant real-time payment system developed by NPCI facilitating inter-bank transactions.