Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 14 announced that the governments of India and Sri Lanka are working together on fintech sector connectivity by linking Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Lanka Pay. The Prime Minister said this in his video message aired at the launch of ferry services between Nagapattinam in India and Kankesanthurai in Sri Lanka.
PM Modi and Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe had signed an agreement on UPI acceptance in Sri Lanka during Wickremesinghe’s two-day visit to India in July this year.
In 2022, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation that offers UPI services, signed a memorandum of understanding with France’s fast and secure online payment system, Lyra. In 2023, UPI and Singapore’s PayNow signed an agreement, allowing users in either country to make cross-border transactions. The UAE, Bhutan, and Nepal have already adopted the UPI payment system.
UPI recorded 10.56 billion transactions in September. It was slightly lower than the 10.58 billion transactions reported in August, the first time the instant payment mechanism crossed the 10 billion transaction mark.
