Peru will soon have a UPI-like instant payments system, thanks to an agreement signed on Wednesday by NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international branch of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), with the South American country's central bank to create the technology.
This marks NIPL's second collaboration with a central bank to deploy the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) stack in the international market. In May of this year, the payments authority signed a deal with the Bank of Namibia (BoN) to build an immediate payment system similar to UPI in the African nation.
Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NIPL, stated, "Our relationship with the BCRP aims to develop Peru's financial infrastructure and promote economic growth. Once operational, Peruvian citizens will have access to unprecedented levels of convenience, security, and efficiency in financial transactions.
The agreement will make it easier for consumers and businesses to make rapid payments, as well as expand the use of digital payments among Peru's unbanked population.
"The support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been a pillar of this accord. The BCRP (Central Reserve Bank of Peru) seeks to increase financial inclusion, security, and efficiency, as well as to create new use cases for digital payments. Furthermore, we believe that this new infrastructure will play an important role in stimulating innovation and allowing new participants to enter the Peruvian ecosystem," stated Julio Velarde, BCRP Governor.
The development comes amid the NPCI's push to expand UPI rails into overseas countries, including France, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Mauritius.
In January 2024, the NPCI announced the launch of the UPI-PayNow linkage, which will allow Indians to receive remittances directly into their bank accounts from Singapore and vice versa. In February of this year, it announced a cooperation with Lyra, an e-commerce and proximity payments firm, to enable UPI acceptance in France. The same month, UPI services were launched in Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
