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AMF, India’s NPCI ink deal to boost cross-border payments

NPCI’s UPI has become one of the most successful real-time payments systems globally, providing simplicity, safety, and security in person-to-person and person to merchant transactions

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The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) on Tuesday signed an agreement with the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate cross-border payments to enhance economic and financial ties between India and the Arab region.

Mehdi Manaa, CEO of Buna, the cross-border and multi-currency payment system owned by the AMF, and Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing the partnership between Buna and NIPL to implement payment solutions via Unified Payment Interface (UPI). The arrangement will lead to interoperability between their instant payment services and allow their participants to exchange cross-border payments in a cost-effective and secure way, instantly, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

The ceremony was held at the AMF headquarters in Abu Dhabi in the presence of Sunjay Sudhir, ambassador of India to the UAE and Dr. Abdulrahman A. Al Hamidy, director general and chairman of the AMF Board.

The envisioned alliance between Buna and NIPL presents a strategic opportunity for both payment systems to build on the high potential of their instant payment services with the objective of spreading the benefits of cross-border instant payments to citizens and corporates and supporting the growth of trade and investment flows between the Arab world and India.

Al Hamidy said the collaboration will help drive initiatives that enable financial inclusion and cater to the financial needs of the society, in line with their objectives to support economic growth and create means for citizens’ prosperity in the Arab world and India.

“Enhancing cross-border payments is a pillar for the growth of financial and commercial ties between the different parts of the world. This partnership is a milestone in Buna’s plans to promote the usage of its cross-border multi-currency instant payment service and its contribution to the development of the payment industry in the Arab region and at a global level,” said Al Hamidy.

Shukla said the strategic partnership with AMF is a significant step towards actualizing NIPL’s vision of taking its exemplary payments solutions to global markets. “We are focused on bringing about a superior cross-border experience through our cutting-edge real-time payment solution – UPI. Our partnership with AMF and Buna would further boost the growth of cross-border payments through UPI.”

NPCI’s UPI has become one of the most successful real-time payments systems globally, providing simplicity, safety, and security in person-to-person and person to merchant transactions. In 2021 alone, UPI enabled 39 billion financial transactions amounting to commerce worth $940 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 31 per cent of India’s GDP.

Buna, is a cross-border payment system owned by the Arab Monetary Fund, aiming to enable financial institutions and central banks in the Arab region and beyond to send and receive payments in local currencies as well as key international currencies.

issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com