Singapore and India's central banks have announced plans to link payment services between the 2 countries.

When integrated, users will be able to make instant fund transfers between banks of both countries at significantly lower costs.

Key Highlights

• Singapore and India aim to complete banking services linkage by July 2022.
  
• The linkage includes Singapore's PayNow and India's unified payments interface (UPI).
  
• When fully integrated, users will be able to transfer funds between banks of both countries instantly and at significantly lower costs than today.
• Fund transfers from India to Singapore will use mobile phone numbers, while transfers from Singapore to India will use the UPI virtual payment addresses (VPAs).

Why It Matters

• Singapore's central bank hopes the linkage will open up new financial opportunities between the two countries, as well as increase remittance volume.
• International cross-border remittance fees are very costly, and can be especially challenging for the migrant population.
  
• While there have been companies such as Wise catering to this need, transfers are still not instant and adoption is still relatively low.