President decides introducing India’s “Unified Payment Interface”

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu on Sunday has made the decision to introduce India’s “Unified Payment Interface” (UPI) in the Maldives on the recommendation of the cabinet.

This move is expected to bring significant benefits to the country’s economy, including increased financial inclusion, improved efficiency in financial transactions, and enhanced digital infrastructure, the President’s Office in a statement said.

The president made the declaration following Sunday’s cabinet meeting, after discussing on the paper submitted by the Minister of Economic Development and Trade towards ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the matter.

As such, President Muizzu has declared plans to set up a consortium to introduce UPI in the Maldives. He further suggested that banks, telecommunication companies, state-owned enterprises and fintech companies operating in the Maldives “should be included in the consortium.”

President Muizzu appointed TradeNet Maldives as the consortium’s leading agency.

Besides this, the president decided to constitute an inter-agency coordination team comprising the ministries of Finance, Homeland Security and Technology, and the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) to lead the Economic Ministry to oversee the establishment of the UPI in the Maldives.

While the Maldives head of the state has announced the decision to introduce India’s UPI to the Maldives, the Bank of Maldives (BML) – the country’s national bank – earlier had announced its acceptance of India’s Rupay Card across the bank’s ATMs and PoS machines. The bank made the announcement earlier on October 7^th.

The introduction of India’s UPI was mentioned during President Muizzu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting earlier this month during Muizzu’s official state visit to the neighboring ally.