UPI Goes Live at Galeries Lafayette’s Flagship Store in Paris

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), in partnership with Lyra, a French leader in securing e-commerce and proximity payments, is delighted to enable the acceptance of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at Galeries Lafayette’s flagship store in Haussmann, Paris. Known for its rich culture, stunning architecture, and world-class shopping, Paris is a favourite destination among Indian tourists. This new integration allows them to make secure and convenient UPI transactions at this historic luxury department store, enhancing their overall Parisian experience.

Following the successful implementation of UPI for online ticket booking at the Eiffel Tower, Galeries Lafayette becomes the second major French merchant to enable UPI under the NIPL- Lyra partnership. The official announcement was made in Paris in the presence of His Excellency Jawed Ashraf, Ambassador of India to France and Monaco, along with distinguished guests including Nicolas Houzé, CEO of Galeries Lafayette, and Alain Lacour, Chairman of Lyra Group.

NIPL, in partnership with Lyra, is delighted to enable the acceptance of UPI at Galeries Lafayette’s flagship store in Paris.
This collaboration boosts UPI adoption as a convenient and secure cross-border payment method for Indian tourists, enhancing their overall Parisian… pic.twitter.com/SXnANI2E2H

— NPCI (@NPCI_NPCI) July 5, 2024

This partnership will benefit multitude of Indian tourists visiting Paris every year, allowing them to use UPI, their favored payment method, at the prestigious Galeries Lafayette flagship store. The integration of UPI ensures effortless shopping and seamless transactions through UPI-powered apps, enhancing the memorability of their visit to Paris. By simply scanning QR code at the store, Indian tourists can complete their payments with transparency in exchange rates.

Recalling the success of UPI launch at the Eiffel Tower in January 2024 and the meeting hosted for potential merchants with NPCI International in February 2024, Ambassador Jawed Ashraf welcomed the quick conclusion of the agreement and engagement of UPI at the world-famous Galleries Lafayette, specially ahead of the Paris Olympics. Starting July 26, 2024, Paris Olympics is expected to draw large number of Indian visitors. Ambassador hopes this will pave the way for wide acceptance of UPI in France and support its internationalization as a means of digital payments. He thanked NPCI International and Lyra for their cooperation.

Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NPCI International said, “Our collaboration with Galeries Lafayette in Paris not only enables UPI payments at a prestigious venue but also boosts UPI adoption as a convenient and secure cross-border payment method for Indian tourists. We are confident that UPI will continue to gain traction as a reliable and efficient payment option, further strengthening its presence in international markets.”

Christophe Mariette, Chairman of Lyra India said, “Lyra is happy to have enable for the first time in Europe the in-store acceptance of UPI in the iconic Department stores Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in Paris. Thanks to the collaboration with NPCI International, Galeries Lafayette and the cash register editor Lundi Matin it has been done in a very short time. One more reason for Indian tourists to come to Paris for the Olympic Games.”

Nicolas Houzé, CEO of Galeries Lafayette said, "We are delighted to be the first department store in Europe to offer the UPI payment solution at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann. By introducing UPI, we facilitate seamless and secure transactions for our Indian guests and strengthen cultural and economic ties between France and India. As the number of visitors from India is growing, we are proud to offer this innovative payment option, ensuring a convenient and memorable shopping experience. With the opening of our first Indian store in Mumbai in 2025, followed by New Delhi, this initiative becomes even more significant, symbolizing our commitment to reinforcing the ties between our two countries."

The integration of UPI at prominent French retail and tourist destinations is set to boost its popularity among European merchants. This initiative aims to broaden UPI’s market presence in France and Europe, driving further growth and adoption as a secure payment solution.

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) was incorporated on April 3, 2020, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). As NPCI’s international arm, NIPL is devoted to deploying NPCI’s indigenous, successful real-time payment system—Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—and card scheme (RuPay) outside of India. NPCI has successfully developed and proved its products and technological capabilities in the domestic market by transforming the payment segment in India. Currently, there are several countries that seek to establish a real-time payment system or a domestic card scheme. NIPL, with its knowledge and experience, can offer these countries technological assistance through licensing and consulting for building real-time payment systems to meet the rapidly evolving needs of fast-growing global businesses. NIPL focuses on transforming payments across the globe through technology and innovation. It will not only enable payments for Indians but also support other countries by enhancing their payment capabilities using technological assistance, consulting, and infrastructure.

Future of digital payments - What's next for India's Digital Space: Lyra Network

Rajesh Desai - CEO Lyra Network

MUMBAI, India , Nov. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In India's journey towards becoming a cashless economy, two words and their impact played a significant role, 'demonetization' and 'COVID-19'. One laid out the foundation of digital payments and another became the main source to build up the digital payments ecosystem.

Back in 2016, demonetization was a push from the government to convert India from a cash-based economy to a cashless economy. But India had witnessed digitization with steady progress way back in the 90s. With technologies like MICR, ATM, credit, debit cards followed by digital wallets, prepaid cards, recharge vouchers, etc., the payment industry was supported by new technologies and innovations. With the rise of Fintechs, the growth of the payment industry has seen many innovative solutions and methods to transact digitally. With astounding initiatives and innovations like, UPI, FASTags, NFC payments, QR codes, interoperable digital wallets, etc., Indian digital payment space certainly holds a promising future.

In the pandemic and the eventual lockdown, the digital payment sector has witnessed ups and downs. The new normal of COVID- 19, social distancing, has influenced not only consumer behavior towards shopping but also how they pay for things. However, with the government's initiative, local and new businesses like online storefronts utility bills, etc. are embracing digital payments and with that', many digital platforms have seen recoveries. One such platform that has gained enormous popularity is contactless payments.

"Pandemic has created a big opportunity for contactless payments. As awareness about digital payments is spreading pan India , more number of people are actually interested in using contactless payments. They know what contactless payments are, how they work and they prefer to use contactless payments, " Says Rajesh Desai, CEO & MD, Lyra Network .

"While contactless payment is sitting comfortably with consumers, it is crucial for merchants to adapt to such methods, understand them, and cater to the customer needs," he further added.

Today, more than 60% of Indians use mobile and online banking for financial transactions, and many of them want to continue with digital payments in the post-covid world. But still, four out of five payments are done by cash, and one of the main reasons is the lack of internet access. Though there are many external factors directly or indirectly affecting the growth of digital payments like government's initiative, the pandemic, digital awareness campaigns by the payment solution providers, Fintechs, banks, and the government, etc., the mobile penetration and a robust digital payment infrastructure will allow for a continuous expansion in digitalization and digitization.

Many digital payment platforms have seen their all-time high during this pandemic, so as many digital payment solution providers. Lyra as a Fintech is also playing a pivotal role in making India's journey towards the cashless economy.

"Lyra aims to be a 'One stop solution for all payment requisites'. The backend infrastructure is Lyra's key strength and the data centers at Mumbai and Bangalore are backbones. Our technology, ideas, and innovations are our greatest allies, " Rajesh added.

Lyra is working in the digital space providing transaction routing and payment processing solutions for more than a decade. For rural India , where there are connectivity and network issues Lyra is providing a connecting platform called 'Lyra Connect' . With the active partnership with broadband companies, Telcos, several banking business correspondents, Lyra managed services are able to provide secure and stable connectivity and deliver banking and financial services.

Lyra has also introduced secure connections with intelligent platforms for Point Of Sales (POS) terminals with 2G/3G/4G/PSTN (and now Wi-Fi) technology under the fintech industry banner in India . With innovative solutions like Lyra NAC, a secure and powerful server that provides seamless connectivity and fast transaction gateway for payment processing without any glitch, Lyra payment switch, processing, and routing online payments with a higher success rate and faster processing time, Lyra provides efficient transaction services for all sectors.

Businesses are interested in the payment solutions that require much cheaper and less infrastructure to accept online payments. Payment processing industry and payment service providers are launching and researching the products/ services that will change customer service to more on a personal level. For a long time, banks have dominated the finance industry but with the rise of financial institutes, neo banking, and Fintechs, financial services have become more accessible. Now that there is a mobile app for literally everything, all the services are becoming more personalized and customized.

Soon in the future, the payment space will take more advanced and revolutionary routes. We can witness the development of blockchain payments, payments initiated by voice, biometrics and social media accounts, cryptocurrencies, cloud-based payments, AI, ML, IoT enabled payments, and many more innovative methods.

But payment space includes more than just payment methods, in the coming years, there will be interesting development on the side of digital payment solution providers, as they understand their role in the payment value chain and evolve their innovations, infrastructure, security, interoperability with the trends and the government's regulatory regime.

Though due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic have increased the demand for cash, more people are now shifting towards using contactless payments. In a developing country like India , though financial inclusion has provided an opportunity to adapt to digital payments, the unbanked and underbanked sectors in Indian provide the biggest opportunity for the growth of digital payments. It is safe to say, that for now, due to the pandemic, India's journey to becoming a cashless economy from a cash-based economy is taking a temporary halt at the contactless economy.

About Lyra

Started in 2007, in Mumbai, India , Lyra is established as a leader in securing e-commerce and proximity payments, working in sectors like payment gateway, IP solutions sim solutions, payment switch, merchant plug-in, etc.

Lyra's Key Figures:

Over 10 billion payments secured and transmitted Over 1,20,000 e-merchants Over 14,00,000 POS devices Processing 16 million connections per day SSL certified, EMV 3D2.0 secured and PCI DSS V 3.2.1 compliant services https://lyra.com/in/