MUMBAI: PM Narendra Modi Tuesday called for India to set its own standards and protocols for cross-border payments and directly integrate its payment system with countries where Indian diaspora populations are large and trade volumes significant.He said India now had a sovereign alternative to the foreign standards under-pinning the existing card-payment architecture and could connect it with the global financial system.Modi said the move could also reduce the cost of remittances, noting that Indians abroad send the largest volume of money home globally but lose a notable portion to transaction fees. “UPI can deliver substantial savings here as well, allowing funds to reach Indian families far more rapidly,” he said.His remarks came ahead of the Brics summit, where expanding national and local currency trade is a priority. A proposal seeks to enable retail and trade-settlement interoperability between fast-payment systems by linking UPI with similar networks in other countries. India has been looking at ways to reduce reliance on the dollar for cross-currency trade while Brics has stopped short of referring to the dollar, with the 2025 declaration calling for finding “acceptable mechanisms of financing in local currencies”.“We have already accomplished this with Singapore. As a result, cross-border transactions between India and Singapore occur as seamlessly as transfers between two neighbourhoods of the same city. We must replicate these integrations across other countries and international markets,” the PM said.Addressing Global Fintech Fest for the third consecutive year, Modi said India had gr-own 7.8% despite pressure on energy and commodity supply chains and escalating trade tensions. He also cited a Japanese ratings agency upgrading India to the A category, a milestone achieved after three decades. “This reflects how confident the world has become in the structural reforms implemented over the past years. And I reiterate: India’s ‘Reform Express’ will advance at an even faster pace,” he said.The PM called for stronger cybersecurity, industry-led ethical data-protection stand-ards, a regulatory-industry innovation ecosystem and a fintech consumer-protection index with clear and transparent ratings. He also said the sector needed to diversify beyond payments by expanding credit, insurance, savings, investments and pension products.Noting that Global Fintech Fest coincided with UPI’s 10th anniversary, Modi said those excluded from formal banking for generations were now driving fintech growth.
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He said SVANidhi credit cards had brought street vendors into the formal credit system by giving them a verifiable tool for access. Studies, he said, showed average annual income among PM SVANidhi beneficiaries had risen by over 20%.Noting that besides fintech energy, Mumbai’s cultural energy was also at its peak thanks to Ganeshotsav festivities around the corner, Modi extended warm wishes. Attending the annual fest for the third consecutive time, Modi said, would be his second “hat trick” — the first being in 2024 when NDA formed govt for a third time.
