MUMBAI (Reuters) -Payments firm PayPal has partnered with the operator of India’s popular unified payments interface and others to launch a global platform through which consumers can make cross-border payments to businesses.
The platform, PayPal World, will enable interoperability between local payment platforms and PayPal, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday.
Its partners for the platform include National Payments Corporation of India – India’s payments authority that operates UPI, Brazil’s Mercado Pago, Tencent Holdings’ Tenpay Global and Venmo.
UPI dominates digital payments in India, accounting for about 85% of the total volume of retail digital payments, per regulatory data.
“The integration of UPI on PayPal World’s platform will mark a significant step in expanding UPI’s global footprint,” said Ritesh Shukla, managing director and CEO of NPCI International Payments Limited.
India has been in talks with countries in Africa and South America to help them build a digital payments system using UPI as a blueprint.
PayPal’s platform is expected to go live later this year. The firm intends to add more partners going forward.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
