Global Insights, Local Impact: Lessons from the Payment Pioneers Shaping Tomorrow
When we talk about the future of payments, India inevitably comes into the conversation. In less than a decade, the country has gone from a cash-first economy to the world’s largest real-time payments ecosystem, with UPI (Unified Payments Interface) as its crown jewel. But as Indian fintech leaders set their sights abroad, the central question is clear: how do we take this innovation global?
At the Global Fintech Festival panel, leaders from PhonePe, Razorpay, Worldline, and the UK’s Commonwealth shared hard-earned insights. Their reflections highlight both the promise and the pitfalls of exporting India’s fintech playbook to the world.
- From Domestic Success to Global Relevance
Ritesh Pai (Global Payments Head, PhonePe) explained that while UPI needs no introduction in India, abroad it’s just “one more” payment method alongside Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay. Progress has already been made—UPI is live in seven countries—but each market comes with unique challenges:
- Network-level integrations (e.g., Nepal, Sri Lanka) drive quicker adoption.
- Aggregator-led models demand laborious one-by-one partnerships.
- Regulator-led models often slow adoption since regulators enable rather than drive business.
For Indian travelers in high-value markets like UAE or Singapore, transaction limits and lack of RuPay credit card acceptance remain hurdles. The opportunity is clear: tweak the rails, raise limits, and strengthen branding abroad. As Pai put it, “It’s about getting comfort. The way a Visa card works anywhere in the world, UPI too must offer that same confidence.”
- Remittances: A Human-Centered Use Case
The conversation struck an emotional chord when the Middle East came up. Millions of Indian migrant workers send money home every month, often paying steep fees to private operators. Extending UPI into these corridors could cut costs, boost speed, and improve financial inclusion for some of India’s hardest-working citizens.
As Arif Khan (Razorpay) noted, “For someone earning 5,000 dirhams and sending 3,000 home, even a small reduction in remittance costs makes a huge difference.”
This is where UPI’s impact could extend beyond convenience—towards real economic empowerment for the diaspora.
- The Bigger Picture: Protocols, Not Just Apps
But there’s a deeper debate at play. Khan challenged the room: Is India content staying at the application layer, or will it build the protocols that shape the future of global payments?
The lesson from history is clear: whoever sets the standards (like ISO for messaging or EMV for cards) controls the ecosystem. China UnionPay has already invested billions to secure its global footprint. For India, the smarter play may be positioning UPI not just as a payments app, but as a protocol that countries adopt as their infrastructure.
This could unlock opportunities for Indian fintechs—Razorpay, PhonePe, and emerging startups alike—to export not just products, but the very rails of financial value movement.
- Regulatory Alignment: UK, EU, and Beyond
David Matthews (UK Commonwealth) highlighted a critical challenge: global regulators don’t yet fully understand UPI. For India to succeed, it must not only showcase its 400 million users and billions of transactions but also communicate its security, AML, and fraud-prevention measures to skeptical regulators in Europe and the UK.
The UK, now outside the EU, has a unique chance to align faster with India. Policy stability, fintech working groups, and diaspora linkages provide fertile ground for building corridors. But Matthews cautioned: “Be proud of UPI, but also be self-critical. If you don’t keep asking how to make it better, you won’t be as dynamic globally.”
- What’s Stopping India From Building Global Fintech Champions?
Despite 9,000+ fintech startups, few Indian players are recognized globally at the scale of Stripe or Adyen. Why?
- Shallow deep-tech focus: India builds great apps, but lacks OS-level or protocol-defining breakthroughs.
- Compliance complexity: Cross-border requires not just tech, but banking, FX, and risk management layers.
- Risk appetite: Most founders build “for India first,” given the size of the domestic market, and delay global ambitions.
Yet opportunities abound:
- Cross-border remittances ($900B P2P, $31T B2B) ripe for disruption.
- Embedded finance that gives consumers the best of multiple banks.
- Fraud and risk tech that ensures trust at scale.
- Compliance-as-a-service that helps fintechs expand abroad without reinventing the wheel.
As Pai summarized, “Fintech isn’t just about tech. It’s finance-first. We need to solve for liquidity, Forex, compliance not just transaction speed.”
- The Road Ahead
India’s fintech playbook offers the world three lessons:
- Public-private collaboration works: Banks, regulators, and startups co-creating UPI is rare globally.
- Democratization scales: Making payments free and simple has brought 400M users on board.
- Protocol thinking matters: To lead globally, India must move from app-level success to infrastructure-level influence.
The next frontier isn’t just Indians paying abroad—it’s building global rails that others depend on.
