India and Nepal have launched a peer-to-peer (P2P) cross-border remittance mechanism, linking India's UPI with Nepal's NPI. This system allows real-time money transfers via mobile banking, enhancing convenience for travellers and businesses, fostering financial inclusion, and strengthening economic ties between the two nations.
PayPal Payments Pvt Ltd (PayPal), the Indian subsidiary of PayPal Holdings Inc, has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregatorross Borderxports (PA-CB-E). This marks a key milestone in PayPal's operations in India and its continued support for Indian small businesses, enabling secure cross-border payments to approximately 200 markets, the company said in a statement.
Fintech platform Decentro has received final approval for a Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence from the IFSCA at GIFT City, enhancing its cross-border payment capabilities.
Parliament was informed that UPI has onboarded 55.49 crore users by June 2026, with transactions reaching 24,162 crore in volume and Rs 314 lakh crore in value in FY 2025-26. The platform, operated by NPCI, is expanding internationally through NIPL, facilitating cross-border payments and assisting other nations in building similar systems. Significant efforts are also underway by the Government, RBI, and NPCI to enhance the security and transparency of UPI transactions, including risk-based limits, security frameworks, and public awareness campaigns against cyber-crime.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced its 'Payments Vision 2028' document, outlining initiatives to enhance digital payment security, introduce electronic cheques, and expand regulatory oversight to include e-commerce entities.
Swift and global banks are launching a new system to make international payments faster and cheaper for small businesses and consumers, starting with major global markets.
Zelle, a major US peer-to-peer payment service, is set to launch in India by the end of this year, marking its first international expansion. The move aims to tap into India's large remittance market, offering a service similar to UPI but integrated with bank apps. Zelle also introduced ZelleUSD, a stablecoin for future global payment capabilities.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced stricter timelines for banks to process inward cross-border remittances, aiming to reduce delays in crediting funds to beneficiaries by mandating immediate customer intimation and more frequent nostro account reconciliation.
A drone carrying 5 kg of heroin, allegedly being smuggled to India, crashed in Pakistan's Narang Mandi area, close to the India-Pakistan border. Police have seized the drone and the contraband, initiating an investigation into the incident.
Authorised push payment frauds have emerged as a growing challenge globally as scammers increasingly rely on social engineering techniques to persuade users to transfer money voluntarily, making recovery more difficult even when transactions are authenticated.
Investigators probing the murder of Chandranath Rath, a close aide of West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari, have found a key lead in the form of a UPI transaction made at a toll plaza in Howrah.
State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has agreed to pay $600 million (about 5,700 crore) to settle litigation arising from the collapse of NMC Health, ending years of cross-border legal proceedings.
UPI transactions in India reached record highs in May, driven by summer travel and the IPL, with transaction value hitting Rs 29.90 lakh crore and volume reaching 23.2 billion.
From April 1, 2026, the Reserve Bank of India's new authentication directions modernise how every digital payment you make must be verified -- and place the burden of security squarely on your bank, not on you.
Fintech firm One97 Communications on Thursday said its subsidiary Paytm Payments Services Limited (PPSL), has received authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a Payment Aggregator for physical (offline) payments and cross-border transactions.
'When you think of cross-border payments, the first things that come to mind are risk, compliance, taxation, speed, and cost.'
Despite current headwinds, India remains the world's fastest-growing major economy and should not allow near-term challenges to obscure its long-term growth potential, said Jane Fraser, Citi Chair and Chief Executive Officer.
Punjab Police has dismantled the financial infrastructure of drug-trafficking networks, freezing assets worth Rs 300 crore linked to alleged drug smugglers.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra stated that preventing second-round effects of supply shocks, where inflation expectations rise due to prolonged disruptions, is the primary role of monetary policy. He also defended the RBI's foreign exchange market interventions, asserting it did not commit to an 'indefensible peg'.
'We have seen that stablecoins lack the basic attributes of money, their advantages are neither unique nor unambiguous and their risks are all too real.'
Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on Wednesday said that the country is not pursuing any proposal to replace the US dollar as international currency for global trade. "No, certainly not. I think India is not part of any such initiative," he said in response to a question if India is looking at an alternative currency to the US dollar for global trade.
'Whether it is an Indian entity or an overseas subsidiary of the entity that is making the payment, if the owner is Indian, then he or she is contributing to the Indian casualties.'
Delhi Police dismantled a major international arms trafficking module with links to Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, arresting 10 operatives and recovering a cache of foreign-made weapons.
'More than becoming a unicorn, what truly satisfies us is seeing small businesses grow from Rs 10,000 a month to Rs 20 lakh after joining our platform.'
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in no rush to launch the central bank digital currency (CBDC) nationwide, as its most promising use case - cross-border payments - depends on other countries rolling out their own CBDCs simultaneously for the system to work effectively. That said, the CBDC pilot is progressing well, with the user base in India expanding to about seven million, said RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar.
Under the defence partnership, India and the UAE are eyeing defence industrial collaboration and cooperation in advanced technologies, cyberspace training, special operations, interoperability of their militaries and counter terrorism.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday said regulations should not create unintended barriers to financial inclusion while emphasising that the impact of regulations on individuals and businesses should be considered.
'There are no additional benefits for banks and market participants to use CBDC...'
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Ayush Varshney, co-founder of Darwin Labs, in connection with the 200 million Gain Bitcoin cryptocurrency scam. Varshney was apprehended while attempting to flee the country.
The searches by the ED also covered certain vehicle owners, auto workshops, and traders in Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Kottayam and Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu).
Nearly two-thirds of external commercial borrowings (ECBs) raised so far in the ongoing financial year (2025-26/FY26) have been routed through Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), a sharp jump from the 36 per cent recorded in 2024-25.
The BRICS nations have expressed concern over the proliferation of trade-restrictive actions in the form of 'indiscriminate rising' of tariffs, particularly measures used as a means of 'coercion', cautioning that such practices risk marginalising the Global South countries.
United States President Donald Trump has warned that countries aligning with the BRICS economic bloc will face additional 10 per cent tariffs on their goods, as he seeks to protect the dollar's global dominance.
The Indian government has expressed its disagreement with the IMF staff's 'baseline' assumption that the 50 per cent US tariffs on its goods exports 'would remain in place indefinitely', based on which the staff pegged the country's GDP growth at 6.6 per cent this year, and pared its 2026-27 projection by 20 basis points to 6.2 per cent.
India and Russia have called for an uncompromising global fight against terrorism without hidden agendas and double standards. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the menace is a direct attack on the values of humanity.
In the first such collaboration for India, the country's flagship payments platform, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and Singapore's PayNow payment system have launched a real-time cross-border payment linkage system. The linkage, which was launched by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday, was kicked off by a live cross-border transaction between Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon, using mobile phones.
India is pushing for greater disclosures by credit card companies, fintech firms, and payment aggregators (PAs) at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), so that the sender and recipient in a cross-border financial transaction can be easily identified and the information shared with law enforcement agencies. Separately, the inter-governmental group, which sets standards to curb money laundering, will release the fourth round of its mutual evaluation report on India on September 19. FATF in June had adopted the mutual evaluation report on India and placed the country in the "regular follow-up" category - the highest rating given by the global watchdog and a distinction shared by only four other G20 countries.
'It is not looking at valuation, but investment, growth and ultimately better profit for stakeholders.'
The average value of retail digital payments dropped 48 per cent from Rs 8,769 in March 2021 to Rs 4,560 in March 2024 due to a growing preference to use digital modes of transactions for small value payments, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) report on the trend and progress of banking in India.
The CBDT is investigating Jane Street for possibly misusing the India-Singapore tax treaty.
