Indians will soon be able to replicate mobile payments using UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and RuPay in Europe. Indian tourists currently use international card networks to make payments when they travel to Europe as they do in other foreign locations. The benefit of UPI over cards is that it enables access to various bank accounts with a single mobile application. Prior to COVID, an estimated 10 million people from India visited Europe, making it a major tourist market.

How will RuPay and UPI be facilitated

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay payments have been introduced in Europe by NPCI's international division, NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), in collaboration with the French digital payment firm Worldline.  Worldline, a company that is also active in India, has entered into a contract with NPCL International Payments, or NIPL, the international division of NPCL (National Payments Corporation of India). As a result, Worldline is the first company in Europe to provide UPI and RuPay cards to European businesses and Indian citizens living in Europe. The first countries to get UPI and RuPay services through Worldline's digital QR-based payments are Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands and Luxembourg as per media reports. With the introduction of Worldline QR in Europe, more expansion plans are being considered.

Once the transactional interface systems are enabled, tourists from India will be able to pay with their RuPay Debit or Credit cards in Europe. Due to an increase in passenger traffic and expenditures by Indian tourists, this will result in a variety of customer-related merchant benefits, according to NPCI and Worldline's announcement.