A Pine Labs and WEBXPAY partnership will let Sri Lankan businesses accept UPI, Indian cards, net banking and other familiar payment methods as Indian tourism surges.
Sri Lankan merchants are set to gain access to a wider range of Indian payment methods after Pine Labs formed a cross-border partnership with WEBXPAY, a move aimed at making it easier for Indian travellers to pay with the tools they already use at home. According to the companies, the arrangement will allow merchants in hospitality, travel, retail and e-commerce to accept UPI, cards issued by major Indian providers, net banking from more than 100 banks, UPI AutoPay and Credit on UPI.
The partnership also gives merchants the option of EMI conversions and next-day settlement, with the services available through existing payment systems. That matters in a market where India is Sri Lanka’s biggest source of tourists, with more than 530,000 Indian visitors recorded in 2025, according to the companies’ announcement.
Pine Labs said the deal is its first activation under India’s Reserve Bank-authorised Payment Aggregator-Cross Border framework, a regime that allows regulated payment companies to support cross-border transactions. Industry reports on the transaction say the deal is also being described as Sri Lanka’s first payment aggregator-to-payment aggregator arrangement of its kind, underscoring the novelty of the model for the country’s merchant market.
Tanya Naik, senior executive vice-president and head of online business at Pine Labs, said Indian consumers expect to use familiar digital payment tools when they travel and that the company sees cross-border commerce as the next stage of that experience. Thilak Piyadigama, executive chairman of WEBXPAY, said the tie-up was chosen for Pine Labs’ Indian payments infrastructure and its ability to support a regulated cross-border model at scale. Pine Labs has also indicated it wants to replicate the approach in south-east Asia and other markets with significant Indian consumer demand.
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