RuPay: The ‘Made In India’ Card Making Its Mark Globally

Due to the inbuilt feature of insurance coverage and the transparent un-biased pricing, banks prefer to offer RuPay cards as a default option to their customers. Moreover, PMJDY also fuelled this growth as RuPay cards were being issued with every account opened under the scheme. RuPay is playing an important role in the area of financial inclusion as well. Besides this, the Platinum variant of the card offers several features which are at par with global standards. Hence, RuPay has been successful in capturing the untapped masses as well as affluent audiences.

RuPay entered the market in 2012 with the intention to empower all banks through issuing debit cards to their customers. RuPay debit cards are available in two variants: RuPay Platinum and RuPay Classic. Customers are entitled to premium features, such as complimentary access to national and international airport lounges, higher accidental insurance cover, cash back offers on utility bills and much more.

RuPay not only caters to the customers of international banks, but also covers private, cooperative and regional rural banks customers. This brings the total number of banks issuing RuPay cards to over 1000, including private, public, co-operative or regional rural banks. Due to the large issuance base, RuPay enjoys a status of being a market leader in the country. Today, there are over 490 million RuPay cards in circulation in India. NPCI has also rolled out RuPay credit cards with value added services and customised premium features in association with over 12 major banks. 

There is also a RuPay Contactless card which is a single card for all small and large payments across various categories. RuPay Contactless cards are designed in line with the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) guidelines as envisioned by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). It has been developed to offer secure, user friendly and cost effective solutions to facilitate low value payments and build a cashless transaction environment.

In order to be the best payment network, RuPay has also tied-up with international players like Discover, Japan Credit Bureau and China Union Pay to enhance its international acceptance and even recently achieved a milestone of issuing 25 million RuPay – Discover global cards.