There is good news for those planning to visit Europe. Now, you can make payments through UPI as NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has entered into a partnership with European payment services facilitator Worldline. The partnership between NIPL, the global arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and Worldline is aimed at expanding acceptance of Indian payment means across Europe, according to a release issued on Tuesday, the PTI reported.
Where can Indian travellers use the system?
Under this arrangement, Worldline’s QR code-based mechanism will give access to merchants’ Point-of-Sale (PoS) systems in Europe to accept UPI payments from Indians using their mobile phones. Later on, Indian customers will also be able to use their RuPay debit or credit cards to make payments in Europe.
ALSO READ: India Is Doing Better And In Relative Bright Spot Compared To Other Countries: IMF (abplive.com)
The partnership will lead to several customer-related merchant benefits due to an increase in footfall and spending from Indian tourists, noted NPCI and Worldline in the joint release.
As of now, Indian customers pay through international card networks during overseas travel.
Which European nations you can avail this benefit?
The target markets will be BENELUX – Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg – and Switzerland, according to NPIL. It will expand further with the rollout of Worldline QR in more European countries.
Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NIPL, said the partnership will provide the company an opportunity with good coverage of the European markets as well as an advanced and universally applicable solution.
“The rollout of acceptance of UPI-powered apps and RuPay cards across Europe is important to us, as we expect increased mobility of Indians in the continent in the coming years. We believe this partnership will empower Indian consumers to continue using their preferred payment modes as they travel across Europe,” Shukla said.
In 2021, UPI transactions stood at 3,874 crore and the value was $954.58 billion. On the physical cards front, NPCI has issued 71.4 crore indigenously-developed RuPay cards to date.