India and Spain have agreed to fast-track technical discussions to make India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) interoperable with Spain’s Bizum mobile instant-payment platform, according to a statement from India’s Commerce Ministry. The commitment was made during Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s European tour from July 13 to 18, which included a visit to Spain where he met Spanish officials to discuss the agenda.
During his visit to Madrid, Goyal met Carlos Cuerpo Caballero, Spain’s First Vice-President and Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, and Jordi Hereu Boher, Minister of Industry and Tourism. The UPI-Bizum interoperability was part of a broader bilateral agenda aimed at enhancing digital payment cooperation between the two countries. The discussions are still at the technical stage, with both sides working to establish the necessary frameworks to enable seamless cross-border payments.
The move to link UPI with Bizum fits into India’s wider strategy to expand UPI’s international footprint. UPI is already operational in nine countries, including France, Singapore, and the UAE. India has also been developing real-time foreign-exchange settlement links to support UPI transactions abroad. Recent agreements include QR-based UPI acceptance in Qatar, a network-to-network agreement with the Maldives, and a postal-remittance tie-up between India Post and NPCI International.
India’s Commerce Ministry confirmed the agreement to accelerate talks on UPI-Bizum interoperability during Goyal’s four-nation European tour, which also included visits to Belgium and Finland. The next steps involve detailed technical discussions to finalize the integration framework between UPI and Bizum platforms.