In a move poised to reshape the landscape of international digital payments, PayPal has announced that India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will be among the first payment systems to be integrated into its global platform, PayPal World. This partnership marks a significant step in expanding UPI's reach on a global scale, enabling seamless cross-border transactions for Indian users.
PayPal World, set to launch in late 2025, aims to connect major payment systems and digital wallets worldwide, fostering interoperability and streamlining international transactions. Launch partners include Brazil's Mercado Pago, Tencent Holdings' Tenpay Global, and Venmo.
The integration of UPI into PayPal World will allow Indian users to make payments internationally via UPI. Once UPI is live on PayPal, users will see the UPI option when they click the PayPal button during checkout, which will allow them to complete transactions using their UPI account. This eliminates the need for currency conversions and simplifies the payment process. For example, an Indian user browsing an online store in the United States can select UPI as the payment method when paying with PayPal.
Ritesh Shukla, Managing Director and CEO of NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), hailed the integration of UPI on PayPal World as a significant stride in expanding UPI's global footprint. He emphasized that the collaboration aligns with the vision of making cross-border payments more seamless, secure, and inclusive. NIPL is an entity tasked with internationalizing UPI and the RuPay card network.
UPI dominates the digital payments landscape in India, accounting for approximately 85% of the total volume of retail digital payments, according to regulatory data. The Indian government has been in discussions with several countries in Africa and South America to assist them in developing digital payment systems based on the UPI model.
PayPal World will enable interoperability between local payment platforms and PayPal. Users of partner wallets connected to PayPal and Venmo will be able to make payments through this interoperability. PayPal World is designed to allow further interoperability if partner wallets decide to pursue it in the future, further expanding reach and acceptance across borders.
PayPal's Indian subsidiary, PayPal Payments Private Limited, recently received approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator for cross-border exports (PA-CB-E).
