NEW DELHI: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has formed a subsidiary in a bid to take its business beyond Indian shores. NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) will facilitate and co-create payment technologies with other countries, and help popularise Indian payments technologies such as UPI and RuPay abroad. “NIPL is tasked with the responsibility of exporting NPCI’s indigenously developed offerings and technological acumen to foreign markets.
The primary focus of NIPL would be internationalisation of RuPay and UPI, along with a few more offerings of NPCI,” the payments major said. The move comes just a day after the Reserve Bank of India released guidelines for the creation of an alternative retail payment system, allowing eligible companies to bid to form the new umbrella entity by February next year.
Officials said that the central bank wants to reduce the risk of having a single operator—NPCI currently— handling such a vast area of finance. RBI is also worried that NPCI, which processes nearly half of all the digital payments in the country, may become a monopoly and turn into a too-big-to-fail entity in the ever-growing payments space.
Several nations have displayed an interest in establishing a ‘real-time payment system’ or ‘domestic card scheme’ inspired by NPCI’s innovations, officials said. “It is a matter of pride for NPCI that several regions such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East have displayed interest towards replicating our model in their own nations,” said Dilip Asbe, CEO, NPCI. The growth and evolution of NIPL will result in a huge acceptance network for RuPay and UPI, which, in turn, will empower Indian travellers,” it said.