Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged India to expand the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) beyond its current 11-country footprint, using the UPI-PayNow connection with Singapore as a model for system-to-system payment links. Operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI processed 24.51 billion transactions worth approximately $314 billion in August 2026 and accounted for about 49% of global real-time payment volume in 2024. Greece and the Maldives are its newest markets. NPCI CEO Dilip Asbe said the organization aims to connect with 15 to 20 additional markets over the next decade, prioritizing countries with large Indian communities or substantial trade ties. The strategy is closely linked to remittances: India received more than $155 billion in inward remittances in the fiscal year ended March 2026, while traditional transfers to developing countries cost an average of 6% or more. Modi also called for India’s fintech sector to expand into savings, credit, insurance and pensions, alongside stronger domestic standards, cybersecurity, data protection, regulation and consumer safeguards.