Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on India’s fintech industry to promote the global reach of the Unified Payments Interface, aiming to reduce remittance costs for overseas Indians and establish India as a standard-setter in international digital payments at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged India’s fintech industry to push the Unified Payments Interface beyond its home market, saying wider international links could lower remittance costs for millions of Indians working overseas and speed up transfers to families in India. Speaking at the seventh Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Modi said the country’s digital payments system should be connected with local networks in other nations, particularly where there is a large Indian diaspora or strong trade ties with India.
According to reporting by Business Standard and other outlets covering the speech, UPI is already live in 11 countries and has been integrated with Singapore’s domestic payments system. Modi argued that this gives India a chance to set standards in global digital payments rather than simply rely on systems developed elsewhere. He said the technology could offer a practical alternative to international card networks, which have long dominated cross-border transactions.
Modi also said the fintech sector should move beyond payments and focus on broader financial services, including credit, insurance, pensions and savings products. Livemint reported that he framed this as the next stage of growth for an industry that has already transformed domestic payments and now needs to build more products around that platform.
The prime minister also pressed the industry to put more effort into cybersecurity, ethical data protection and consumer safeguards. He proposed a Fintech Consumer Protection Index to measure firms on factors such as transparency and accountability, aiming to help users choose services more confidently while encouraging tougher standards across the sector.
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