Apple Set to Bring Apple Pay to India This October, UPI Left Out?

New Delhi, August 10: Apple is preparing to roll out its Apple Pay digital wallet service in India by October, marking its entry into the country’s premium credit card market and giving the company a cut of transaction revenue, according to people familiar with the matter.

At launch, the service will only work with credit cards issued on international networks like Visa and Mastercard, mirroring the setup Apple already uses in other countries where Apple Pay operates.

Notably absent from the initial rollout will be support for UPI (Unified Payments Interface), India’s dominant payments rail. Enabling UPI transactions would require Apple to secure approval from the National Payments Corporation of India and tie up with a sponsor bank to handle the routing of such payments.

Sources also indicate that Apple is currently in discussions with Indian banks over the transaction fees it would charge, a factor that could shape how widely the service is adopted once it goes live.