Apple Pay Eyes India Launch

Apple is set to launch Apple Pay in India next month with Axis Bank credit cards, according to three people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters. The rollout would mark Apple Pay’s entry into one of the world’s largest digital payments markets.

Axis Bank is expected to be Apple’s first banking partner in India. Apple has also held discussions with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, but commercial terms with the two lenders have not yet been finalised, according to sources.

Apple Pay allows iPhone users to make contactless payments using tokenised card details stored on their devices, without opening a separate payments application.

The company plans to expand Apple Pay support to additional lenders through separate bank-by-bank agreements, following a phased approach used in other markets.

Apple Pay will enter a digital payments market dominated by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which accounts for about 84% of India’s digital payments volume, according to Reuters.

Recent regulatory changes allowing biometric authentication for card payments have enabled services such as Apple Pay to work with Indian bank cards using Face ID and Touch ID.

Axis Bank had around 16.26 million active credit cards in July, making it the fourth-largest credit card issuer in India, according to Reserve Bank of India data.