NRE/NRO accounts with international mobile numbers from these countries can now use UPI; check details

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In a good news for the non-resident external (NRE)/ non-resident ordinary (NRO) account holders having international mobile numbers, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has now allowed to transact through Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

The NPCI, an umbrella organisation for all retail payments system in India, has directed the members of the UPI ecosystem to allow non-resident account types like NRE/ NRO accounts having international mobile numbers to get on-boarded/transact in UPI, an official statement issued by the NPCI said.

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However, there are certain conditions put forth by the NPCI for the transaction through UPI. Those are mentioned below:

1. Member banks have to ensure such types of accounts are only allowed as per extant Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations and adherence to the guidelines/instructions issued by the concerned regulatory departments of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from time to time.
2. All necessary Anti-Money Laundering/ Combating Of Financing Of Terrorism checks and compliance validation/account level validations as per the extent rules applicable under the regulatory guidelines shall be the responsibility of the remitter/beneficiary banks.

To begin with, the NPCI shall be enabling the transactions from mobile numbers having country codes of Singapore (+65), Australia (+61), Canada (+1), Hong Kong (+852), Oman (+968), Qatar (+974), USA (+1), Saudi Arabia (+966), United Arab Emirates (+971), and the United Kingdom (+44), along with the current domestic country code.

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“And, this hall extend for other country code in near future through an addendum or guidelines issued by NPCI,” read the official statement.

“NPCI has been receiving requests from the ecosystem as well as customers with regards to the Non-resident (NR) accounts and other permissible accounts having international numbers to be allowed to transact in UPI. Hence, they decided to allow this so that the non-resident accounts having international numbers to experience a seamless and instant journey of UPI,” stated the NPCI.

The NPCI has advised all the members to comply with the directions by April 30, 2023.