New Delhi, Dec 15 (TIWN) In a thumbs up to the Indian government's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) scheme, Google has written to the US Federal Reserve Board detailing the successful example of UPI-based digital payment in India in order to build "FedNow" -- a new interbank real-time gross settlement service (RTGS) for faster digital payments in the US.

In a letter written by Mark Isakowitz, Vice President, Government Affairs and Public Policy, US and Canada, Google, the company said it worked closely with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the payment regulator government by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to build 'Google Pay' for the Indian market.  NPCI deployed a real-time payment system UPI in 2016.  According to Google, UPI was thoughtfully planned and critical aspects of its design led to its success.  "First, UPI is an interbank transfer system (there are now over over 140 member banks, after initially launching with 9 participating banks). Second, it is a real time system. Third, it is 'open' -- meaning technology companies can build applications that help users directly manage transfers into and out of their accounts held at banks," Isakowitz wrote to Ann Misback, Secretary, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.  Adoption of the system was rapid, growing from 100,000 monthly transactions, to 77 million, to 480 million, to 1.15 billion monthly transactions in the first four years.