The National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) overseas subsidiary, NPCI International Payments or NIPL, has partnered with Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) to develop a real-time payments platform similar to India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI). This collaboration marks Trinidad and Tobago as the first Caribbean nation to embrace UPI technology.
The initiative aims to establish a reliable real-time payment platform for person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions, providing a seamless digital payment experience. "Trinidad and Tobago is taking significant steps towards advancing its financial infrastructure, and we are proud to support them in building a secure, sovereign, and scalable payments platform," said Ritesh Shukla, CEO, NPCI International. He highlighted the transformative impact UPI has had on India’s economy by improving access to financial services and reducing cash dependency.
A spokesperson from Trinidad and Tobago’s MDT added that the UPI-inspired digital payment platform will foster fintech innovation, enhance the resilience of the existing payment infrastructure, and offer increased security by minimising cash usage. It is also expected to boost financial inclusion for unbanked citizens.
This partnership comes amid India's ongoing discussions with African and South American nations to develop similar digital payment systems based on the UPI model, with plans to launch these initiatives by early 2027. India aims to explore interoperability and connectivity in both domestic and international payment networks through such collaborations.
For instance, NPCI has already signed an MoU with the Maldives' economic development and trade ministry to introduce UPI in the Indian Ocean archipelago. NIPL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NPCI launched in 2020, has been actively developing UPI and the RuPay card scheme for international markets.
Meanwhile, UPI has achieved remarkable growth in India, registering nearly 15 billion transactions with an estimated value of USD 245 billion by August 2024.
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