RUPAY'S RISE HEATS UP PAYMENTS

IT FACES A TOUGH CHALLENGE THOUGH IN BREAKING THE BASTION OF FOREIGN PAYMENT NETWORKS IN BOTH DEBIT AND CREDIT CARDS.

- V. KESHAVDEV

FIRST ENVISAGED by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2005, the indigenous debit card payment network, RuPay, came to life in 2012. At the launch, there were 2 lakh cards under the RuPay brand with the not-for-profit National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) targeting 10 million (1 crore) debit cards under its banner by March 2013.

More than a decade later, RuPay has made significant inroads, with close to 700 million debit cards. Though the NPCI has not revealed the official figures, RuPay, as per industry sources, accounts for 20% of the over 86 million credit cards in circulation. As per a report by Pine Labs, transaction volumes are expected to hit 3.2 billion by 2025-26 from 1.8 billion in FY23. In a bid to widen the acceptance of RuPay beyond Indian shores, the central bank has paved the way for RuPay prepaid forex cards by banks in India, following up on its move to allow RuPay credit cards to be linked for India payment network (UPI) payments.