Apple is preparing to launch its digital payment service in India by late 2023 or October, focusing initially on credit card transactions on global networks amid ongoing negotiations with local banks over interchange fees and regulatory approvals.
Apple is preparing to bring Apple Pay to India by the end of September or in October, after years of delay caused by regulatory questions and commercial negotiations with banks, according to Business Standard. The service is expected to launch first with credit cards on global networks such as Visa and Mastercard, using the same framework Apple runs in other markets.
At launch, Apple Pay will not handle payments through the Unified Payments Interface, better known as UPI. To add that feature, Apple would need approval from the National Payments Corporation of India and a sponsoring bank to route transactions. Business Standard reported that the company has spent months negotiating with the country’s biggest credit card issuers over how much of each payment it would receive, with the fee expected to come from the bank’s interchange income rather than from customers or merchants.
Sources familiar with the talks told Business Standard that Apple had sought 15 to 20 basis points of interchange on each credit card payment, while some large issuers were pushing for 10 basis points. One basis point equals 0.01%. Interchange is the fee paid between banks when a card transaction is processed and forms part of the merchant discount rate, the charge merchants pay to accept digital payments. Apple did not respond to Business Standard’s request for comment.
If the launch goes ahead, it could strengthen credit card use in a market that still leans heavily on UPI. Pine Labs chief executive Amrish Rau said on the company’s earnings call that Apple Pay could enter India before the end of this year and that card payments were already growing by about 10% to 15%. Separate reports from The Economic Times and Bloomberg said Apple has also been in talks with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank about a possible India rollout, with some accounts pointing to a later timetable and broader support that would include UPI. That reflects the uncertainty that has surrounded Apple’s India plans for months.
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