Almost 20% of the world’s population lives in India and although the market has lagged in their adoption of global credit cards, an indigenous model dubbed RuPay now has 50 crore issued cards. This article in the Financial Express sent me to the dictionary to find that 50 crore equal 500 million. That’s a lot of plastic; 10% more than the US Credit Card market.
One of the objectives of this roll-out is to retain processing fees, as this article points out.
- India’s home-grown card network RuPay is a step towards digital Indian economy packed with an intention of reducing the for-ex outflow from India. 50 crore RuPay cards have been issued in less than four years of its launch.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that his pet Digital India Initiative aims at eliminating middlemen and checking the circulation of black money.
- PM Modi has beseeched the countrymen to use the domestic RuPay debit/credit card to ensure that transaction and processing fee is not earned by foreign companies.
- Since, the extra payment goes from the exchequer in foreign reserves; using RuPay cards can be the least we can do to serve the nation because, the money saved can be used for undertaking development and infrastructure work.
RuPay is a domestic card, but there is an enhanced product that allows for international usage.
- Similar to any other debit cards that we hold now, RuPay debit cards can be used at 1.45 lakhs ATMS, 26.14 lakhs POS terminals across the country and various e-commerce websites across India.
- The card is presently accepted at 39 acquiring banks enabled for RuPay Card acceptance. Portmanteau of the words rupee and payment, RuPay card offers a highly secure network that protects against anti—phishing.
The original BRIC countries are now covered well with their country-specific markets. If you want to see a deep dive on the market, follow this link.
Overview by Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group