Real-Time Bank Account Payments In India To Get Easier Soon: Here's How

The overseas arm of NPCI signed an agreement with Western Union to bolster real-time money transfer to bank accounts in India from foreign countries. The collaboration will allow customers in India to receive international money transfers in real-time into their bank accounts in the country, said Western Union in a statement on Thursday, December 16.

NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) and Western Union signed a memorandum of understanding to bolster real-time bank account payments in India, it added.

The two companies will work closely over the next few months to enable bank account holders in India to receive cross-border money transfers seamlessly and instantly, including UPI IDs.

Western Union processes money transfers into billions of bank accounts, including wallets and cards in more than 125 countries and territories, with real-time capabilities in 100 of these nations, according to the statement. It also allows money transfers in cash at approximately 6,00,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories.

"India is a strategic market for Western Union and this collaboration is key to our efforts to expand real-time payments solutions, expanding the breadth of our current offerings to ensure customers have all the options available to them to move money the way they prefer," said Sohini Rajola, Head of the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Western Union.

NIPL is the internationally-focused subsidiary of NPCI, and it is looking to drive deep into collaboration with overseas partners in the areas of remittance, acceptance, and real-time payments infrastructure, using indigenously developed technologies in digital payments, according to the statement.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organisation for operating the retail payments and settlement systems in India, which is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).