The Central Bank of the Republic of Peru (BCRP), partnering with the Reserve Bank of India, will establish a system comparable to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The BCRP and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) jointly established the National Payments Corporation and participated in the transaction.
The new system will facilitate financial inclusion in Peru, which has a substantial unbanked population because India’s UPI permits offline transactions. Additionally, it will improve the interoperability of payment systems that are both domestic and international.
Additional Payment Methods for Peruvians
The system will “complement the existing payments industry” and “allow new participants to enter the Peruvian ecosystem,” according to BCRP Governor Julio Velarde. There was no announcement regarding the launch date.
UPI users can link numerous bank accounts in their mobile applications and utilize virtual payment addresses, phone numbers, and QR codes to make payments on a 24-hour basis. As per an official statement from the BCPR:
“The BCRP’s objective is to promote greater access, security, redundancy and efficiency, as well as facilitate the introduction of new use cases in digital payments.”
UPI Gains Adoption
2020 marked the establishment of NIPL. Sri Lanka, Mauritius, France, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Bhutan, and Nepal officially support the UPI system. In May, it agreed with the Bank of Namibia to establish a payment system similar to UPI.
Google Pay and financial institutions in the United States, Japan, China, and Singapore partnered with NIPL. Singapore was the first country to adopt the UPI, signing a partnership with PayNow in February 2023.
Currently, the Peruvian sol is associated with at least two stablecoins. Since 2021, the nation has also been contemplating the implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
In 2021, the BCRP collaborated with the monetary authorities of China, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong to establish a CBDC. That was one year before the official introduction of India’s retail CBDC pilot.
