From UPI to cross-border payments: Why interoperability is the next big opportunity

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has moved beyond being a domestic payments success story, with its international expansion creating a pathway towards more seamless cross-border transactions. As instant-payment systems proliferate globally, interoperability could become the next major frontier for digital payments.

UPI’s next phase goes beyond India

UPI processed 23.2 billion transactions in May 2026 alone, highlighting the scale that India’s real-time payments infrastructure has achieved. Boston Consulting Group’s The Burden of Proof: Global Payments Report 2026 notes that 137 countries had state-owned or mandated 24/7 instant-payment systems as of June 2026, underlining the rapid global spread of real-time payment rails.

The challenge now is to connect these domestic systems so that users can make payments across borders with the same ease they experience at home.

UPI is already moving in that direction. As of September 2026, UPI is available to Indian users across 13 country-market arrangements, including Singapore, the UAE, France, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Qatar, Greece, Cambodia and Uzbekistan, alongside other markets.

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From payment rails to payment connectivity

UPI’s international expansion is being driven by NPCI International Payments (NIPL) through partnerships with overseas payment networks and financial institutions.

The nature of connectivity differs by market. Singapore has supported UPI person-to-merchant (P2M) payments since August 2021, while its PayNow linkage enabled person-to-person (P2P) connectivity from February 2023. The UAE followed with UPI payments in April 2022, while France, Mauritius and Sri Lanka became operational in February 2024.

The network has continued to expand in 2026. Greece introduced P2P connectivity in May, Nepal added P2P capability in June, Cambodia enabled P2M payments in June and Uzbekistan became the latest addition, according to the supplied background.

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Why interoperability matters

The broader opportunity lies in connecting different instant-payment ecosystems rather than simply exporting one domestic system.

For Indian travellers, students and business users, international UPI connectivity can reduce dependence on cards and cash and potentially simplify payment experiences. For merchants, direct connectivity with overseas payment systems can widen access to customers without requiring every transaction to move through traditional card networks.

BCG’s report points to a similar structural shift. Domestic account-to-account systems and instant-payment rails are strengthening alternatives to global payment networks for simpler domestic transactions. However, complex cross-border commerce, advanced authentication and tokenised transactions remain harder to substitute.

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Cross-border payments could be the next battleground

The economics are significant because payment volumes are increasingly shifting towards lower-cost digital rails. BCG expects global payments revenue to rise from nearly $2 trillion in 2025 to about $2.6 trillion by 2030, with revenue growing at around 5% annually.

For India, the next opportunity is therefore not just making UPI bigger, but making it more connected. Linking instant-payment systems across countries could eventually create faster, simpler and more interoperable pathways for retail payments, remittances and cross-border commerce.