Digital Wallet Payments must Flow beyond Borders
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Countries like India have made rapid progress in digitising cash and expanding their digital wallet ecosystems, but the real growth in global commerce will come only when these country-specific systems become interoperable, said PayPal chief executive Alex Chriss.'The challenge is that these wallets are very native to a specific geography. They work great locally, but if you travel or want to send money across borders to someone using a different wallet, there really is no mechanism available,' Chriss said in an exclusive video interview with ET from the financial technology company's headquarters in San Jose, California.Highlighting India's importance in PayPal's global strategy, Chriss said the company is focused on cross-border payments and wants to leverage the scale of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to expand access for Indian consumers.'The Indian market is incredibly important to us. We need to play where we can be strong — (cross-border payments). This partnership allows us to work with the strongest payment network in India and enable consumers here to make purchases around the world,' he added.He spoke about PayPal World, a new platform that integrates five major wallets globally: India's UPI, China's TenPay Global, Mexico's Mercado Pago and US-based PayPal and Venmo. This tie-up allows Indian UPI users to shop from international merchants and pay using their UPI app, removing the friction typically associated with cross-border payments. Indian travellers abroad will also be able to use PayPal World for QR code-based and peer-to-peer payments using their local bank accounts.The service works the other way as well. Foreign travellers visiting India will be able to use their native wallets once enabled on PayPal World for transactions here.'It's important to show commitment from some of the largest wallets, which is why we started with these five, bringing nearly two billion consumers into the ecosystem,' Chriss said. 'The interest is very strong from others, and we'll onboard as many wallets as we can in the coming months.'Chriss took over as PayPal CEO in September 2023, following the retirement of long-time chief Dan Schulman. Previously, he led the small-business division at business software firm Intuit.PayPal exited India's domestic payments business in 2021, but continued to operate in the cross-border segment. In May 2025, it received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a cross-border payments aggregator. While it is a global leader in this space, PayPal competes in India with the international arms of homegrown firms like Razorpay and Cashfree.By partnering with NPCI International Payments Ltd, the global business unit of National Payments Corporation of India that manages UPI, Chriss said PayPal is aiming to unlock cross-border commerce for Indian merchants and consumers through UPI.'The future of payments is cross-border, and it must be interoperable across domestic wallets. Walled gardens don't deliver real customer benefit,' he told ET.He also acknowledged the impact of cryptocurrencies on the global payment infrastructure. Instant payment systems globally now operate under the shadow of crypto, which offers borderless, real-time transactions that often bypass local monetary regulations.
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