NPCI to ink deal with UAE’s Al Etihad Payments on Oct 5

NPCI International Payments Ltd, the international division of India's National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), is set to formalise a partnership with Al Etihad Payments in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, October 5. The collaboration aims to enable seamless cross-border transactions and promote the development of a domestic card scheme in the UAE, leveraging India's RuPay debit and credit card infrastructure.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed during the visit of Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, who is leading a business delegation to Abu Dhabi from October 5 to October 6. Goyal will also co-chair the eleventh meeting of the India-UAE High-Level Task Force on Investments alongside Sheikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Prominent figures attending the meeting include Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Minister of Investment, MD, and CEO of ADQ; Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade; Khaled Mohamed Balama, Governor of the Central Bank of the UAE; and the Ambassadors of both countries, Abdulnasser Alshaali (UAE Ambassador to India) and Sunjay Sudhir (Ambassador of India to the UAE).

During his visit, Goyal is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO and MD of Mubadala, engage with members of the UAE-India Business Council, meet with key business leaders from both nations and connect with significant food importers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Egypt.

Earlier this year, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) established an agreement with Singapore's PayNow, facilitating cross-border transactions between the two countries. Last year, NPCI entered into an MoU with Lyra, France's secure online payment system.

The UPI system has already been embraced by the UAE, Bhutan, and Nepal. Furthermore, NPCI International is actively exploring opportunities to extend UPI services to the United States, European countries, and the West Asian region.

UPI, developed by NPCI, is a real-time payment system that enables swift inter-bank transactions.

(With PTI Inputs)