NPCI International Payments Limited signed a strategic agreement with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd on February 13, 2026, to enable QR-based cross-border merchant payments between India and Malaysia. The integration will connect UPI with DuitNow, Malaysia's national real-time payment platform operated by PayNet.
The rollout is planned in two phases. In the first phase, Indian travellers visiting Malaysia will be able to use their UPI apps to make payments at DuitNow QR acceptance points across the country, including restaurants, retail stores, and tourist attractions. The second phase will enable Malaysian visitors to India to scan UPI QR codes and pay using their DuitNow apps.
This agreement represents a significant expansion of UPI's international footprint in Southeast Asia. While UPI already has a bilateral linkage with Singapore's PayNow for both P2P and merchant payments since February 2023, the Malaysia partnership opens access to millions of DuitNow QR merchant touchpoints. Malaysia is among the top destinations for Indian tourists in the region, with over 800,000 Indian visitors annually.
The bilateral approach mirrors the model used for the UPI-PayNow linkage with Singapore and differs from the multilateral approach of Project Nexus, a BIS Innovation Hub initiative aiming to connect instant payment systems across India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. While Nexus is expected to go live in 2026, the direct bilateral agreement provides a faster path to interoperability between the two countries.
With this agreement, UPI's international merchant acceptance footprint now spans nine countries: Singapore, UAE, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, Mauritius, Qatar, and Malaysia. Additional expansions to Japan (via NTT Data, trial from April 2026) and Israel (via MASAV, announced February 2026) are in progress. NPCI International has stated its ambition to integrate UPI into 20 or more countries by FY2029.