RuPay

Overview

RuPay (portmanteau of Rupee and Payment) is an Indian multinational financial services and payment service system, conceived and owned by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It was launched in 2012, to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) vision of establishing a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments. RuPay facilitates electronic payments at almost all Indian banks and financial institutions. NPCI has partnered with Discover Financial and JCB to help the RuPay network gain international acceptance. As of November 2020, around 753 million RuPay cards have been issued by nearly 1,158 banks. All merchant discount rate (MDR) charges were eliminated for transactions done using Rupay debit cards from 1 January 2020. All Indian companies with an annual turnover exceeding ₹50 crore (US$5.2 million) are required to offer RuPay debit card and Unified Payments Interface as a payment option to their customers.

Background

In 2009, RBI asked the Indian Banks' Association to create a non-profit payment company which would design an indigenous payment card. The card was tentatively called "India Pay". After years of planning, NPCI was entrusted with its implementation and finalised the name of the proposed card as RuPay, a portmanteau of the words rupee and payment to avoid naming conflicts with other financial institutions using the same name. The colours used in the logo allude to the tricolour flag of India. NPCI conceived RuPay as an alternative to Mastercard and Visa, while consolidating and integrating various payment systems in India. RBI, in a Vision Document titled "Payment Systems in India - Vision 2009-12", had previously expressed the need for an Indian payments system. It arose from the absence of a domestic price setter, which caused Indian banks to bear high costs for affiliation and connection with international payment systems like Visa and Mastercard. Partnerships with these foreign companies meant that all transactions, of which domestic payments accounted for more than 90%, needed to be routed through a switch located outside the country. RuPay was launched in and dedicated to India on 8 May 2014, by the then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, at Rashtrapati Bhavan. NPCI launched a subsidiary called NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) on 19 August 2020 to increase the globalisation and availability of RuPay in foreign markets. As of March 2021, the market share of RuPay in India was at 34% by volume of transactions and at 30% by value. On 14 December 2021, the Government of India approved a ₹1,300 crore ($170 million) package to promote RuPay among marginalised sections of the population. Mastercard and Visa have raised concerns with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) over India promoting the use of RuPay.

Internationalisation

Around 77.7 crore (777 million) Indian consumers shopped cross-border in 2021. To make payments easier, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UK-based PPRO Financial on 17 November 2021 to expand the acceptance of RuPay in foreign markets, especially in China and United States, which account for half of all international transactions coming from India. Under its Payments Vision 2025, RBI aimed to further push for the internationalization of RuPay, with countries using the United States dollar, Pound sterling and Euro under bilateral treaties. NIPL signed a definitive agreement with PPRO Financial on 27 April 2023 that will enable acceptance of UPI among international payment service providers (PSPs) and global merchant acquirers.

Products

RuPay offers debit cards, credit cards, prepaid cards and government scheme cards. Government scheme cards include debit and credit cards, such as the RuPay PMJDY, RuPay Mudra and RuPay PunGrain debit cards, and the RuPay Kisan credit card. It also offers combo cards that offer debit and credit, debit and prepaid, or credit and prepaid features through a single card.

Debit cards

RuPay issues debit cards in three variants – Classic, Platinum and Select. Classic is the standard variant, and a basic RuPay-branded card which offers minimum features such as acceptance at almost all merchants in India, and some offers in categories like dining, travel, pharmacy, lifestyle, cosmetics, retails, shopping, and jewelry. It does not offer benefits such as airport lounge access. Platinum is RuPay's middle tier offering, providing all the features of Classic, plus more offers and benefits such as airport lounge access, comprehensive insurance coverage of up to ₹2,00,000 and various other merchant offers. In 2020, NPCI launched the RuPay Select card, in a bid to target more affluent customers. It is the most premium variant of a card issued by RuPay. The card is independent of its issuing bank, forming partnerships with various businesses to provide card-specific benefits. Under Rupay Select, all benefits are curated under one package, independent of bank partnerships, saving customers the hassle of applying for multiple card schemes. RuPay Select allows NPCI to capture a share of the high-spending customer market and provide an Indian alternative against premium offerings from Mastercard, Visa etc. As of July 2018, RuPay cards have been issued by most banks across India. Apart from the main private-sector and public-sector banks, RuPay cards are also issued by cooperative banks (scheduled cooperative banks, district cooperative banks, state cooperative banks, urban cooperative banks) and regional rural banks (RRBs) in the country.

Credit cards

Similar to RuPay debit cards, RuPay credit cards are available in three variants – RuPay Classic, RuPay Platinum and RuPay Select. RuPay credit cards have been in operation since June 2017, with eight public sector banks, one private sector bank and one cooperative bank issuing the card without any formal launch. A pilot project was implemented to technically enable more banks in RuPay credit cards with an additional five public sector banks. By March 2018, NPCI plans to have 25 banks altogether on board. More than 18 banks have launched RuPay credit cards:

Axis Bank AU Small Finance Bank HDFC Bank IDBI Bank United Bank of India Union Bank of India Punjab National Bank Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Saraswat Bank Canara Bank Central Bank of India Vijaya Bank Bank of India Federal Bank Kotak Mahindra Bank Bank of Baroda Yes Bank State Bank of India After a moratorium imposed by RBI on Mastercard due to data localization issues, Federal Bank and Yes Bank started on-boarding new credit card customers on RuPay platform. In 2021, Fiserve with NPCI launched a stack of services called nFiNi, that will help Indian banks improve the quality of services for RuPay credit cards. In September 2021, Union Bank of India (UBI) launched a RuPay and JCB co-branded international credit card. NPCI, in collaboration with Kotak Mahindra Bank, launched specially designed RuPay credit cards for the Indian Armed Forces on 28 October 2021. BOB Financial and NPCI partnered to launch Bank of Baroda RuPay and JCB co-branded international credit card on 16 November 2021. Launched on the RuPay-JCB international network, it supports better global acceptance. During the 2021 Digital Payment Utsav, India Post Payments Bank, Punjab National Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, and City Union Bank launched contactless credit cards on the RuPay network. From 8 June 2022, RBI allowed the linking of RuPay credit cards with India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI). In the absence of a physical card, customers can use their credit limit through for transactions. The service was officially launched on 20 September 2022, and was a game changer, helping Rupay increase their market share. For the first time, RuPay credit card usage topped ₹10,000 crore in a single month in December 2023, accounting for roughly 6% of the domestic credit card market. The number of RuPay credit cards in use surpassed 10 million in December 2023. On 1 August 2024, RBL Bank announced integration of National Common Mobility Card and UPI capabilities with RuPay credit cards.

Combo cards

The Union Bank of India launched the RuPay Combo Debit Cum Credit Card in November 2018, the first RuPay card that facilitates both debit and credit transactions through a single card. The card has 2 EMVs and 2 magnetic stripes.

Prepaid cards

RuPay issues prepaid cards in three variants – RuPay Classic, RuPay Corporate and RuPay Platinum. Sodexo launched the Sodexo Multi-Benefit Pass in partnership with RuPay in May 2019. The card contains a magnetic stripe that allows users to pay for meal benefits, as well as a chip that allows them make purchases through the RuPay network. It can also be used to make online purchases on web portals that accept RuPay payments. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in collaboration with the Union Bank of India and the National Payment Corporation of India launched the IRCTC-UBI RuPay pre-paid card in 2015 to book tickets, do shopping and pay service bills. The card is the first of its kind in the market, as both virtual and physical cards are issued to customers in two variants. Kochi1, a RuPay prepaid smart card rolled out by Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) with the help of the Axis Bank on 2 March 2019, became the first inter-modal transit card when its usage was extended to private buses with additional services including parking solutions in near future. It was launched under the Kochi Smart City project, with plans to extend the card to auto-rickshaws, ferries including those of the Kerala State Water Transport Department, the proposed Water Metro, and KSRTC buses so as to make it a Common Mobility Card in all respects. RBL Bank partnered with GI Technology, a Wirecard subsidiary and India's largest wallet-based domestic money remittance company operating under the brand name ICashCard to launch RBL-ICASH co-branded, open loop RuPay Prepaid Card. ItzCash, India's largest digital payments company, announced that it has partnered with RBL Bank to launch the country's first co-branded Rupay Platinum Prepaid Card. The multi-purpose card will roll out a suite of prepaid services across physical and virtual platforms. The service was launched to ensure seamless interoperability, access to unlocking multiple solutions and driving the prepaid program of the nation. MobiKwik launched a RuPay Prepaid card in collaboration with NPCI and Axis Bank on 12 November 2021.

RuPay Global

The NPCI started issuing global cards in 2014. Singapore has since offered assistance to promote India's digital payment network RuPay card overseas by becoming its first international partner. On 7 March 2012, NPCI entered into a strategic partnership with Discover Financial for RuPay, enabling RuPay Global Cards to utilise Discover Card, Diners Club International and PULSE networks for international purchases and cash access outside of India. Both companies also worked to implement D-PAS, Discover's EMV technology to offer chip-based cards to RuPay card members. The cards are now accepted by over 42.4 million POS terminals and 1.90 million ATMs in 185 countries. NPCI, with JCB launched the RuPay-JCB Global card on 22 July 2019. After extending domestic POS terminal and ATM support for incoming foreign JCB card holders in 2017, NPCI entered into the second phase of its partnership with the launch of the co-branded card to further increase the international acceptance of RuPay. The card will offer special cashback programmes for POS transactions outside India, in addition to selected popular international destinations for travellers. It will support additional services such as in-city JCB Lounges located in airports with round the year merchant promotions all over the world. While debit cards are only being issued initially through the partnership, credit and prepaid cards are also on the anvil. RuPay issued 64 million Global Cards between 2014 and March 2019. RuPay has tied up with international players like Discover, Japan Credit Bureau and China Union Pay to enhance its international acceptance and recently achieved the milestone of issuing 25 million RuPay – Discover global cards. As per JCB Co., Ltd., 1 million RuPay-JCB co-badged cards are in circulation in India in premium category. RuPay has several agreements with other international payment networks. Some major examples include:

Discover Card Diners Club International Pulse in United States JCB in Japan NETS in Singapore UnionPay in China BC Card in South Korea Elo in Brazil DinaCard in Serbia

RuPay E-com

RuPay E-com is the payment gateway that facilitates online transactions by RuPay card holders. It supports one click payments, Seamless APIs, and Connected Checkout, and also offers additional payment options such as subscription payments, EMI, online credit card bill payments and balance transfers.

Commercial credit card

NPCI launched the RuPay Commercial Credit Card for corporate clients on 23 July 2020 at Global Fintech Fest in partnership with State Bank of Mauritius (SBM). Fintech startup Yap helped in developing the application programming interface (API) powering the card while EnKash will provide dedicated customer support and expense management service. SBM is targeting the product towards SMEs and MSMEs. It will be available through State Bank of Mauritius touch-points across India which is undergoing business expansion. RuPay Business credit card is offering instant bulk payout, 30-day credit period on business purchase, automated goods and services tax (GST) and a dashboard to manage business spending that will further help the clients move towards more powerful corporate offerings from NPCI in future. Central Bank of India with NPCI launched RuPay Business Platinum on 29 December 2021 for corporate customers. The card will help people from small business and micro-enterprise to maintain personal and business account separately.

RuPay Pro

RuPay Pro credit card is also launched on 23 July 2020 at Global Fintech Fest but is mainly oriented towards young individual entrepreneurs. It is offering variable billing cycle, travel expenses, rental payments with dedicated customer services and expense tracking mechanism. It supports digital and paperless know your customer (KYC) process on-boarding.