Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) today launched a service where Maldives' Instant Payment System (Favara) and India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have been integrated, now allowing instant transfer to India from rufiyaa accounts.

At the inauguration ceremony held at MMA today, the service was launched through Bank of Maldives (BML) and Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB).

Customers of both BML and MIB can now transfer funds to India's UPI accounts through internet banking, without the need to use any additional applications, MMA said. 

Under this service, when payments are made via rufiyaa or USD, Indian rupees will be instantly deposited to the receiving Indian bank account. 

MMA said that the transaction is secure and convenient, similar to transfers between banks in Maldives. 

The service is being introduced in phases, with the current service allowing only person to person (P2P) transactions. MMA said that discussions are underway to include in the second phase person to merchant (P2M) transfers, where payments to businesses can be made through a QR code. 

MMA said that payments via QR codes to businesses and other digital services will be introduced in upcoming phases. 

Currently, the service is only available to transfer funds from Maldives to India. However, testing will take place in the coming days to introduce India to Maldives transfers as well, MMA said. 

As per the foreign currency regulations, each customer will be able to send up to INR 24,000 (approximately USD 250) each month. 

MMA said that banks have the option of setting lower limits if necessary. 

Users will be able to verify the recipient's account through UPI before transfers. It will also display the exchange rate, bank fees and the name of the recipient. 

The agreement linking Favara and UPI was signed in July 2025. 

UPI is the most common and the official digital payment system for transactions in India. UPI is used by the biggest businesses, taxis and road-side vegetable shops for transactions.