UPI heads to France as NPCI International and Lyra Network reach an agreement

This is NPCI International’s seventh international collaboration to spread India’s digital payment products—UPI and Rupay cards—around the world, following agreements with the UAE, Singapore, Nepal, and Bhutan.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced on Thursday that it has begun offering the Unified Payment Services (UPI) throughout Europe, beginning with France, following the UAE, Singapore, Nepal, and Bhutan.

The international division of NPCI, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), announced during his trip to France for the Viva Technology 2022 event that NIPL had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Lyra Network, a provider of payment solutions based in France, to accept UPI and Rupay cards in the nation.

“The whole world is watching that India is doing 5.5 billion UPI transactions in a month. This is a big achievement for India. Today’s MoU with France is a big step towards the world,” the minister told ANI

In May, UPI processed close to 6 billion transactions totaling Rs 10 trillion.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s leading digital payment network, has handled transactions totaling more than Rs 10 trillion in May, setting a new milestone since the platform’s debut in 2016. 

Even the platform’s 5.95 billion handled transactions in May set a record high for the payments platform.

Despite a high base, the number of transactions increased by 6.63% and their value increased by 5.91% month over month. UPI processed 5.58 billion transactions totaling Rs. 9.83 trillion in April. UPI transactions have more than doubled in volume and value when compared year over year, demonstrating the rapid growth the digital payments network has experienced.

UPI processed over 46 billion transactions worth over Rs 84.17 trillion in FY22, surpassing the $1 trillion threshold. Additionally, it handled 22.28 billion transactions worth Rs. 41.03 trillion in FY21. Therefore, in a year, both the number and the value of transactions doubled. The Covid-19 pandemic, according to experts, hastened the adoption of digital payments in the nation over the past two years. UPI transactions have been increasing, tracking the recovery in the larger economy, with the exception of a few setbacks during the first two waves of the epidemic.