RuPay to launch credit cards in September

After increasing its market share to 38 per cent in the debit card segment, RuPay, domestic card payment service provider, will be venturing into the credit card space this September.

  • It plans to issue 100,000 such cards in the first year of its launch.
  • It will initially focus on two variants of a credit card — Regular and Platinum — and gradually extend its portfolio to offer co-branded cards.
  • RuPay is a brand owned and developed by NPCI (from 2012) to compete against global payment schemes of the likes of Visa and MasterCard.
  • NPCI was promoted by 10 Indian banks.
  • From 2017, the target is to issue 500,000 to a million such credit cards every year.
  • The market size of credit cards is presently 22.75 million users and the average value of spending a year is about Rs 2.5 lakh crore.
  • The brand, according to a joint study by JM Financial Securities and RuPay, has gained more than a third of market share in total cards and 18 per cent in volume of debit card transactions.
  • NPCI is also optimistic about the 11 payments banks and eight small finance banks commencing operations over the next two years, helping it further its market share.

RuPay

  • RuPay is an Indian domestic card scheme conceived and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
  • It was created to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India’s desire to have a domestic, open loop, and multilateral system of payments in India.
  • RuPay facilitates electronic payment at all Indian banks and financial institutions, and competes with MasterCard and Visa in India.
  • NPCI maintains ties with Discover Financial to enable the card scheme to gain international acceptance