Technology giant Apple is gearing up to launch its own credit card in India. The iPhone maker’s chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook recently met HDFC Bank CEO and managing director Sashidhar Jagdishan during his recent trip to India in April, Moneycontrol reported.
As per report, Apple is having talks with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch ‘Apple Pay’ in the country. It is unclear whether the discussions pertained to the credit car being powered by the Rupay platform or for the unified payments interface (UPI). Rupay credit card can be linked to UPI too.
In India, only banks can launch credit cards while UPI is for customers to make seamless and fast payments by scanning QR codes through mobile phones. According to the Moneycontrol report, Apple has held talks with the Reserve Bank of India over the modalities of the card. The RBI reportedly asked the company to follow regular procedure for co-branded credit cards.
As per reports, Apple is set to launch its co-branded credit card with HDFC Bank in India. The discussions are in the early stages. At present, the tech behemoth currently operates a premium credit card in the United States, made of titanium and launched in partnership with Mastercard and Goldman Sachs.
For the past couple of years, Apple has been focusing on India. According to report, the iPhone maker’s sales in India touched around ₹50,000 crore in the financial year 2022-23.
Recently, Tim Cook during his visit to India had launched two exclusive stores in Mumbai and Delhi. Apple has been shifting a significant portion of iPhone production to India. It has a four per cent share of overall smartphone market in India, which amounts to two crore users.
As mentioned earlier, only banks can issue credit cards to the customers. In India, Apple cannot introduce a card with its logo and customer’s name on the front. In the US, the brand names of Goldman Sachs and Mastercard appear on the Apple card. But the tech giant cannot take these liberties in India.
Last year, the RBI said bank’s partner cannot store customer or transaction data. Apple platforms cannot store the card details.
Talking about rewards, the Apple card is integrated with Apple Pay and the reward will be deposited into the Apple wallet. This card does not have any annual fees. In the United States, the company let its card users buy the products in installment without interest.
Besides the 3-5 per cent cashback on buying Apple products and services, the tech firm could partner with other premium brands for 2-3 per cent cashback or reward points.