Apple has been looking to launch its payment feature called Apple Pay in India for some time now but it hasn’t successfully negotiated the terms with local authorities. Well, according to people familiar with the matter, the company is again in talks with the local regulatory bodies, specifically, the NPCI – a special division of India’s central bank Reserve Bank of India.
Currently, all payment methods in the country work atop of the UPI, which is a popular payment method in South Asian markets. Walmart’s PhonePe, Google’s GPay and Paytm are all compliant with UPI and work in India.
Reportedly, Tim Cook met with Indian authorities to negotiate a localized version of Apple Pay – customers to be able to scan QR codes and initiate UPI transactions without using third-party apps. Apple also wants users to confirm UPI transactions using the Face ID feature.
But don’t hold your breath. From what we could gather, Apple hasn’t entered negotiations with local partners (banks) and the Indian market is pretty low on the priority list for the company. About 90% of the mobile devices run Android, so the country is a tiny market for Apple Pay.
