India and Russia have discussed the possibility of enabling RuPay and Mir card acceptance in each country for simplified payments amid sanctions imposed on Russia by the West. Based on an article detailed by the Times of India, in a recent high-level Internal Governmental Commission meeting on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), the two regions discussed and agreed upon exploring the opportunity to allow acceptance of RuPay and Mir cards.

RuPay, Mir cards acceptance and what it entails for India and Russia As per the information provided in the announcement, the mutual acceptance of RuPay (India) and Mir (Russia) cards is set to assist India- and Russia-based citizens to carry our simplified payments in Indian rupees and Russian rouble in their respective countries. What is more, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Russia Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, the meeting formed an agreement towards the exploration of the interaction possibility of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of National Payment Corporation of India and the Faster Payments System (FPS) of the Bank of Russia. Additionally, an understanding was made to look at having the Russian financial messaging system, the Services Bureau of Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia, adopted for cross-border payments.

Currently, overseas payments from India and vice versa are carried out leveraging the SWIFT network. The announcement details that at the point when the sanctions were imposed, sources familiar with the matter advised that it would not be feasible for India to opt for other than the SWIFT network. India and cross-border payments recent developments In February 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched the cross-border connectivity between UPI and PayNow, with the linkage enabling people in the two regions to undertake increasingly fast and cost-efficient digital transfers.

Furthermore, it was thought to help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, predominantly migrant workers, and students, with instant and low-cost money transfers from Singapore to India and vice versa. The PayNow – UPI connectivity is a real-time payment systems linkage that leverages a scalable cloud-based infrastructure that can accommodate future increases in remittance volume traffic. In the initial stage, the State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank facilitated both inward and outward remittances, whereas Axis Bank and DBS India did so for inward remittances.

Having been launched in 2016, UPI emerged as the preferred payment mode pioneering person-to-person and person-to-merchant transactions, accounting for 75% of digital payments. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) was incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organisation to operate retail payments and settlement systems in India and has created an extensive payment and settlement infrastructure. The organisation helps facilitate payments through retail payment products of the likes of the RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), UPI, Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC Fastag) and Bharat BillPay.

.