SBI launches UPI-based real-time cross-border transaction facility under UPI-PayNow Payments System

State Bank of India (SBI) rolled out SBIPay on BHIM for the Foreign Inward and Outward Remittances facilities today. This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, launched the real-time payments system linkage between India and Singapore.

“The linkage will allow fund transfers from India to Singapore through registered mobile numbers and from Singapore to India using UPI ID,” the bank said in its release.

The facility will be available on SBI's BHIM SBIPay mobile application.

“We are glad to be associated with this pathbreaking initiative. This will go a long way in boosting the digitization initiatives of the Government and provide easy, seamless cross-border payment facility to the users,” Dinesh Khara, Chairman, of the State Bank of India, said.

The initiative closely aligns with the G20’s priorities of driving faster, cheaper, and more transparent cross-border payments, the bank said in its media release. 

The inward bilateral remittance between Singapore and India is around USD 949 Mn as of 2021 (as per World Bank Bilateral Remittance Matrix Dec ‘22).

Shaktikanta Das, Governor, the Reserve Bank of India, and Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore executed the first live cross-border transaction today. The RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das used BHIM SBIPay for foreign inward remittance, the release said.

“After today, people in Singapore and India will be able to transfer money from their mobile phones in the same way as they do inside their respective countries. This will help the people of both countries to transfer funds from their mobiles instantly, at a low cost. With this facility, cheap and real-time option of remittance transfer between the two countries will be possible,” Modi had said during the launch event on Tuesday.