Tieto Banktech, a Nordic financial SaaS provider serving customers across more than 30 countries, has delivered a new cross-border payment capability for the Maldives Monetary Authority’s (MMA) national Instant Payment System, known as Favara, allowing real-time transfers from the Maldives to India via India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The rollout gives Favara its first-ever cross-border connection, linking the Maldivian payment network directly with UPI so that individuals in the Maldives can send money to recipients in India instantly. Payments are sent in Maldivian Rufiyaa and arrive as Indian Rupees, giving users a quicker and more straightforward route for moving funds between the two countries.
Bringing the capability to market required coordination between several parties, including MMA, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), a number of participating banks and financial institutions, and Tieto Banktech itself, which acted as MMA’s technology partner throughout the initiative.
Tieto Banktech’s role centred on building the cross-border module within the Instant Payment System that makes Favara and UPI interoperable. Its scope spanned the full delivery lifecycle, from architecting and designing the solution through to implementation, certification, integration, deploying it into production and supporting the system through go-live.
Tieto Banktech offers financial SaaS solutions for the Nordics and beyond. With over 3,000 dedicated experts and customers in 30+ countries, it delivers solutions spanning payment and card value chains, financial fraud prevention, lending, wealth management and banking-as-a-platform offerings.
MMA Managing Director of Financial Sector Development Ibrahim Shaugee said, “This launch represents an important milestone in the development of the Maldives’ payment ecosystem and marks Favara’s first cross-border integration.
“Connecting Favara with UPI enables individuals in the Maldives to make fast and convenient real-time payments to beneficiaries in India. We appreciate the close collaboration of NIPL, Tieto Banktech and the participating financial institutions in delivering this capability and look forward to further expanding safe, efficient and accessible cross-border payment services.”
Tieto Banktech Head of Instant Retail Payment and Cards Natālija Dmitrijeva said, “We are proud to have delivered this important milestone together with the Maldives Monetary Authority and our partners.
“Connecting Favara with UPI demonstrates how modern payment technology and strong collaboration can enable secure and seamless real-time payments across borders. This successful delivery is an important milestone for MMA and the Maldives’ digital payments ecosystem, and we are pleased to have contributed our technology and payments expertise to making it possible.”
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