RuPay

RuPay is India’s indigenous payment network, operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which was established in 2012 by the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks Association to create a domestic alternative to the foreign payment networks Visa and Mastercard. The RuPay network processes credit and debit card transactions across India, and its acceptance has grown rapidly since its launch due to strong government backing, lower processing costs for issuing banks, and mandatory acceptance mandates on certain government-linked and PSU banking channels. As of 2026, RuPay is accepted at all point-of-sale terminals in India that accept cards, and the network has expanded internationally through partnerships with Discover Financial Services and other international payment networks.

RuPay credit cards work similarly to Visa and Mastercard credit cards from the cardholder’s perspective — they can be used for purchases at any merchant accepting RuPay, online transactions, and ATM cash withdrawals. The key difference lies in the interchange fee structure. Because RuPay operates domestically with lower infrastructure costs than international networks, the fees charged to merchants (merchant discount rate) are lower, which has historically allowed some RuPay credit cards to offer higher reward rates or lower annual fees than their international network equivalents. Several Indian public sector banks — including SBI Cards, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, and Canara Bank — issue RuPay credit cards, often with specific propositions such as lower annual fees and accelerated rewards on domestic spending categories.

The government has mandated that all government servants receive their salaries through RuPay-enabled electronic benefit transfers, which has created one of the largest captive card user bases in the world. RuPay also powers the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and other social security benefit disbursements. For credit card holders, RuPay offers a contactless payment option called RuPay PayZapp and participates in the UPI ecosystem, allowing RuPay credit card holders to link their cards to UPI apps for QR-code-based payments — a facility that is growing rapidly as UPI acceptance expands across Indian merchants. RuPay’s domestic nature means that transaction data remains within India, which aligns with data localisation requirements under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007.