The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has allowed UPI platforms to onboard such users subject to certain conditions.
Initially, NPCI will allow NRI’s with mobile numbers having country codes of Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, USA, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, along with the current domestic country code, as per an NPCI circular released on January 10, 2023.
As per the circular, member banks must ensure NRE or NRO accounts are only allowed as per the extant FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) regulations and adherence to the guidelines/instructions issued by the concerned regulatory departments of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from time to time.
All necessary anti-money laundering/ combating of financing of terrorism checks and compliance validation as per the rules have to be ensured by the remitter and beneficiary banks.
All onboarding, and transaction level checks as per extant UPI guidelines will be applicable for such accounts as cooling period, risk rules, etc., according to NPCI said.
NPCI has directed all the members to comply with this directive by April 30, 2023.