BHIM SBIPay: SBI wraps out real-time billing with Singapore

State Bank of India (SBI) Wednesday announced a partnership with PayNow—the online payment system of Singapore—for cross-border payments, a day after both countries established a real-time payments system linkage using the UPI platform.

The facility offered through SBI's Bhim SBIPay app will allow fund transfers from India to Singapore through registered mobile numbers, and from Singapore to India using the UPI ID, India’s largest commercial bank said in a statement.

The lender further said the UPI-PayNow linkage is a significant milestone towards the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore. The initiative closely aligns with the G20’s priorities of driving faster, cheaper, and more transparent cross-border payments.

The inward bilateral remittance between India and Singapore was around $949 million in 2021 according to the World Bank bilateral remittances matrix, the bank added.

Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das and Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore—the RBI counterpart in Singapore—executed the first live cross-border transaction, using the Bhim SBIPay, the bank said.

“The linkage of these two payment systems between India and Singapore would enable residents of both countries to initiate a faster and more cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances. It will also help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, professionals, students, and workers through an instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

Singapore premier Lee Hsien Loong said,“the cross-border retail payments and remittances between Singapore and India amount to over $1 Bn annually. As we progressively add more users and use cases, the UPI-PayNow linkage will grow in utility and contribute more to facilitating our trade and people-to-people links."