Fintech Deep Dive — Thursday | July 31, 2026

Theme: International & Cross-Border — Global Fintech, UPI Abroad

1. India Stack Goes Global: 24 Countries Sign DPI Partnerships, DigiLocker Deployments Begin in Kenya and Cuba

India’s digital public infrastructure is no longer just a domestic story. The Ministry of Electronics and IT told the Lok Sabha on July 29 that India has signed cooperation agreements with 24 countries to export India Stack components — UPI, DigiLocker, e-Sanjeevani, and more — marking the most ambitious push yet to turn domestic DPI into a global export. ¹²

The most advanced deployments are in Kenya and Cuba. Kenya has signed an Implementation Framework Agreement and an NDA for DigiLocker rollout. Cuba has already commenced development of a foundational DigiLocker solution. Discussions are underway with Laos, Seychelles, Venezuela, Armenia, Fiji, Guyana, and Colombia. ¹

On the UPI side, merchant payments are now live in Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the UAE, and Cambodia (Cambodia went live in June 2026). Cross-border person-to-person payment links are operational with Singapore, Nepal, and Greece (Greece link went live in May 2026). ³

The government has also approved a Social Impact Fund to provide financial and technical assistance for pilot DPI deployments in low- and middle-income countries — essentially subsidising the global spread of India Stack with public money. ¹

Why this matters: This isn’t just soft power. Every country that adopts DigiLocker and UPI becomes a node in India’s growing digital trade network. Delegations from Kenya, Rwanda, Nepal, Indonesia, and South Africa have interacted with UIDAI, NPCI, NIC, and C-DAC. The WTO’s Trade Policy Review on July 21-23 specifically noted India’s DPI expansion, calling the JAM trinity and UPI “defining features” of the review period, with monthly UPI transactions rising from 4 billion in 2021 to over 18 billion by early 2025 and cross-border payment linkages expanding to eight countries. ⁴

The structural question is whether these bilateral agreements will scale into a coherent interoperable network or remain a patchwork of country-specific integrations. The hub-and-spoke approach NTT Data is building (see Story 2) may be the missing piece.

2. NTT Data Payments Launches ADAPTIS, Plans Hub-Based Architecture to Link UPI With Asian Payment Systems

NTT Data Payment Services India launched ADAPTIS — a unified brand for its digital payment suite across global markets — and outlined a strategy to connect India’s UPI with fast payment systems across Asia through a hub-based architecture that could replace the current model of slow bilateral country-to-country linkages. ⁵

Cross-border payments currently rely on one-to-one country links, hobbled by regulatory and settlement gaps between jurisdictions. NTT Data’s proposed solution — internally called NDPS (NTT Data Payment Services) — builds a shared-switch layer that connects with central banks or switching firms across Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and India, linking domestic systems into a single interoperable network.

“We are moving from bilateral connections to a hub-based model,” said Shinichiro Nishikawa, Head of Global Payments Strategy at NTT Data. “Our aim is to connect local payment systems so that merchants and consumers can transact seamlessly across borders.” ⁵

Why this matters: India’s current UPI internationalisation strategy is fundamentally bilateral — NIPL signs one agreement with UAE’s NEOPAY, another with Singapore’s PayNow, another with Nepal’s NPSL. Each link requires separate technical integration, regulatory clearance, and settlement arrangements. This doesn’t scale. A hub model where a central switching layer connects multiple domestic fast payment systems is closer to how SWIFT works for correspondent banking, but for real-time retail payments. If NTT Data can pull this off, it could dramatically accelerate UPI’s reach across Asia without requiring NIPL to negotiate dozens of individual agreements.

The competitive angle: NTT Data competes with the likes of Swift, Visa, and Mastercard’s cross-border networks, all of which are racing to build real-time settlement rails. India’s 640 million daily UPI transactions — representing nearly 49% of all real-time digital payment transactions worldwide — give it massive bargaining power. ⁶ But the winner won’t be the one with the most bilateral deals; it’ll be the one with the most interoperable network.

3. EbixCash World Money Becomes First AD-II Entity to Get Perpetual RBI Licence for Trade Remittances

EbixCash World Money Limited has become the first Authorised Dealer Category-II (AD-II) entity in India to receive a perpetual RBI licence with an expanded mandate that allows it to process trade remittances of up to ₹25 lakh per transaction — a category historically reserved for banks and AD Category-I institutions. ⁷

The expanded authorisation follows the RBI’s May 2026 revision to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) framework, which for the first time permitted AD-II entities to handle trade remittances alongside family maintenance remittances. Until now, India’s MSME exporters and importers have had to route international trade payments through full banking relationships, dealing with longer turnaround times, extensive documentation, and operational friction. ⁷

EbixCash controls over 75% of India’s cash-to-cash inward remittance market, operates 25,000+ customer touchpoints, and partners with 40+ banks for foreign currency services. The company also holds a Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence at GIFT City and has invested in AI-powered compliance and fraud detection systems. ⁷

Separately, on July 27, EbixCash (formerly Eraaya Lifespaces) integrated its PPI wallet with BHIM UPI, enabling over 14 lakh wallet users to execute UPI payments across millions of merchants nationwide. ⁸

Why this matters: The RBI’s decision to open trade remittances to AD-II entities is a structural deregulation of India’s cross-border payments. It creates a non-bank channel for MSMEs to send and receive international payments — a segment that has been chronically underserved by traditional banking. The perpetual licence (vs. time-limited authorisation) gives EbixCash long-term regulatory certainty to invest in infrastructure.

However, the concentration risk is worth noting: one company holding 75%+ of the cash-to-cash inward remittance market now also gets first-mover advantage on trade remittances. This kind of market dominance in cross-border payments warrants close regulatory scrutiny as the sector scales.

4. UPI Crosses the E-Commerce Threshold: Burj Khalifa Becomes First UAE Attraction to Accept UPI for Online Bookings

UPI’s international expansion crossed a meaningful threshold this week. Indian travellers can now book Burj Khalifa tickets online using UPI — making the Dubai landmark the first attraction in the UAE to accept UPI for e-commerce transactions, moving beyond in-store QR code payments. ⁹

The integration was done through NEOPAY (a UAE-based payment processor) in partnership with NPCI International (NIPL) and Emaar Entertainment. Indian visitors can now purchase tickets before travelling, rather than being limited to in-store UPI payments at participating merchants in the UAE. ⁹¹⁰

This expands NEOPAY’s existing partnership with NIPL, which first introduced QR-based UPI merchant payments in the UAE in 2022. The launch moves UPI from a point-of-sale payment rail to an online payment method for pre-travel purchases — a significant behavioural shift for Indian consumers. ¹⁰

An Emaar Entertainment spokesperson called India “one of our most important international markets,” while NIPL CEO Ritesh Shukla said the move addresses growing demand from Indian travellers for “straightforward, recognisable, and smooth payment methods when overseas.” ⁹

Why this matters: UPI’s international journey has three phases — (1) in-store QR payments at merchant locations, (2) online e-commerce acceptance for pre-travel purchases, and (3) full interoperability with domestic payment systems of other countries. Phase 1 is well underway across 9+ countries. This week’s Burj Khalifa integration marks the start of Phase 2. Phase 3 — where a tourist in Paris can scan a UPI QR and the money flows from their Indian bank account to a French merchant’s local account in real-time — remains the ultimate goal but is still years away.

The broader data context: UPI processed ₹314 lakh crore (₹3.14 quadrillion) in FY26, with 55.49 crore users onboarded as of June 2026. ¹¹ These are numbers that give NIPL massive leverage in international negotiations — but converting user scale into cross-border infrastructure requires the kind of plumbing NTT Data, NEOPAY, and TerraPay are building.

5. Cross-Border Payments Infrastructure: The Bigger Picture — TerraPay, SADC-RTGS, and the Cost Problem

While India’s UPI story dominates headlines, the global cross-border payments landscape is undergoing a parallel transformation that directly affects India’s diaspora and trade corridors.

Vietnam link-up: HDBank (Vietnam) partnered with TerraPay to launch real-time cross-border payments, using existing SWIFT connectivity to deliver outbound remittances through TerraPay’s network. ¹² TerraPay, which has significant India operations and partnerships, continues to build the settlement layer that connects emerging market payment systems.

Africa’s SADC-RTGS expansion: South Africa added the Angolan kwanza to the SADC Real-Time Gross Settlement system, facilitating real-time cross-border settlement across the Southern African Development Community. This replaces costlier correspondent banking arrangements for regional transactions. ¹³ Sub-Saharan Africa’s average person-to-person remittance cost sits above 4%, well above the G20’s target of 1% by 2027.

Nigeria’s Quidax expansion: Quidax, Nigeria’s first SEC-licensed exchange, expanded its stablecoin infrastructure to 21+ countries, creating a compliant engine for businesses to move value across Africa. ¹⁴

Why this matters: India’s diaspora remittance market — the world’s largest at over $100 billion annually — is deeply intertwined with these developments. The cost of sending money home is the consumer pain point. India’s UPI internationalisation, TerraPay’s network expansion, and Africa’s RTGS systems are all solving pieces of the same puzzle: making cross-border payments as cheap and fast as domestic ones.

The G20 roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments set a target of reducing average remittance costs to 1% by 2027. India is currently below the global average for corridors like UAE-India and Singapore-India, but corridors to Africa and Southeast Asia remain expensive. The infrastructure being built now — hub-based architectures, RTGS interconnections, stablecoin rails — will determine whether that target is achievable.