On January 10, India’s retail payments umbrella body The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) issued a circular that paved the way for the widespread adoption of domestic payments platform UPI. Till now, only Indian phone numbers were allowed on UPI, except for non-resident bank accounts linked to their phone numbers abroad. In the first phase, phone numbers from 10 countries including Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE and UK have been allowed to be used on UPI.