India on Wednesday launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at Paris' historic departmental store, Galeries Lafayette, after its successful launch at the iconic Eiffel Tower.
This marks a step forward towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of globalising UPI, an Indian payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) in 2016.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Indian Embassy in France said, "On July 3, 2024, the UPI became live at the flagship store of the world-renowned Galeries Lafayette in Haussmann, Paris. This expands the acceptance of UPI in Paris after a successful launch at the iconic Eiffel Tower."
Jawed Ashraf, Indian Ambassador to France and Principality of Monaco, launched UPI by real-time use at the store. Present at the event was the department store's CEO Nicolas Houze and Chairman of Lyra Group, Alain Lacour.
Taking to X, Ashraf said, "Delighted to launch @UPI_NPCI in the world-famous @Galeries_Laf in Paris. After the launch in the Eiffel Tower in Jan 2024, expanding UPI across France. A journey that PM @narendramodi began in 2018 with UPI in Singapore taking another step forward."
Indian payment system UPI was formally launched in Paris at the Eiffel Tower in February this year, which was an event termed to be taking PM Modi's "vision of taking UPI global".
Reminiscing the success of UPI launch at the Eiffel Tower and the meeting hosted for potential merchants with the NPCI International in February, the Ambassador welcomed the conclusion of the deal and arrangement between NPCI and Lyra for the launch of UPI at Galeries Lafayette ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which starts on July 26.
Notably, the Paris Olympics is expecting a large number of Indian visitors, which makes the timing of the UPI launch at the department store even better.
Ashraf also recalled UPI's first international launch in Singapore in 2018, which was done at the hands of PM Modi. He expressed the satisfaction over UPI's global journey.
The Indian ambassador hoped that on top of being a quick, safe and efficient means of cross-border digital payments, UPI would also grow to be a medium of cross-border remittances and eventually gain the status of digital payment system in countries across the globe.
The UPI payment system powers several bank accounts into a single mobile application, merging many banking features, seamless fund routing and merchant payments under one umbrella.
(With PTI inputs)
