NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), on Tuesday, 2 June launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) acceptance in Cambodia through KHQR — the country's national QR code standard — in partnership with ACLEDA Bank Plc. The launch enables Indian travellers to pay at over 4.5 million merchant outlets across Cambodia using UPI-enabled apps, marking the first phase of a cross-border QR payment corridor between the two nations.

Launch Ceremony and Key Officials

The formal launch ceremony was held in Phnom Penh and was attended by H.E. Dr. Chea Serey, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), alongside representatives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The high-level attendance signals strong institutional backing from both governments for the digital payments initiative.

What the First Phase Enables

In this initial phase, Indian visitors to Cambodia can make seamless QR-based payments at merchant locations spanning tourist attractions, restaurants, and retail stores — all using familiar UPI-enabled applications on their smartphones. Cambodian merchants, in turn, gain access to a large base of Indian digital payment users, along with benefits such as improved cash management, reduced dependence on physical currency, and greater operational efficiency.

What Comes Next: A Two-Way Corridor

The second phase will flip the direction — Cambodian visitors travelling to India will be able to pay at millions of UPI QR-enabled merchant locations across the country using their own domestic banking or payment applications. This will complete a fully interoperable, two-way digital payments corridor between India and Cambodia, a model that mirrors similar corridors India has established with Singapore, UAE, and other nations under NPCI International's global expansion drive.

What the Stakeholders Said

Ritesh Shukla, MD & CEO of NPCI International, described the launch as a key milestone in the global expansion of India's digital payment ecosystem. 'Enabling UPI acceptance in Cambodia is a significant step in this journey. It ensures Indian travellers get a familiar and seamless payment experience abroad, while Cambodian merchants gain access to millions of digital-first consumers,' he said.

Dr In Channy, President and Group Managing Director of ACLEDA Bank Plc., said the partnership reflects a major step in Cambodia's digital transformation and cross-border payment interoperability efforts, adding that the integration helps remove transactional friction and foreign exchange challenges for travellers while enabling local merchants to access a wider digital market.

Broader Significance

This comes amid India's sustained push to internationalise UPI as a global payments standard. NPCI International has been steadily expanding UPI's footprint across South-East Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The Cambodia tie-up, routed through the country's own KHQR infrastructure, is notable because it integrates with an existing national system rather than building a parallel one — a model that could accelerate adoption in other markets. The initiative is aimed at strengthening tourism and commercial ties between the two countries while delivering real-time, secure, and interoperable digital transactions.