Apple Inc. is preparing to introduce Apple Pay in India next month, rolling out the service initially through a single banking partner, Axis Bank, according to reporting by Reuters citing sources familiar with the matter. The impending debut marks a significant shift for iPhone users in the country, bringing native contactless tap-and-pay capabilities directly to Apple Wallet without requiring users to open separate third-party applications.
The launch will rely exclusively on credit card integration rather than connecting to India's Unified Payments Interface network, maintaining a separate lane from the dominant domestic payments infrastructure. According to regulatory data cited in the reports, Axis Bank maintained 16.26 million active credit cards as of July, placing it behind market leaders such as HDFC Bank, SBI Cards, and ICICI Bank in total card volume.
According to M2P Fintech, rBI device-tokenization rules mandate AFA for initial card registration, unique transaction cryptograms, and strict prohibition of plain card data storage. According to The Economic Times BFSI, unlike Samsung Pay, which integrated UPI and utility bill payments to gain Indian market traction, Apple Pay's initial strategy relies strictly on tokenized credit cards.
Regulatory data indicates that Axis Bank held 16.26 million active credit cards during July, placing it behind SBI Cards, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank regarding card issuance.
Apple's initial reliance on Axis Bank stems from a phased, direct bank-by-bank rollout strategy that mirrors the technology giant's market entry patterns in other global jurisdictions. While discussions have been held with larger lenders including HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, commercial agreements with those institutions remain unfinalized, preventing their cardholders from accessing the service at launch.
Industry observers note that securing Axis Bank as the primary launch partner allowed Apple to establish a foothold in the domestic market despite the lender holding a smaller active credit card base than its primary competitors. Additional banks and debit card support are expected to be incorporated gradually in the months following the initial rollout as further commercial agreements reach completion.
According to The Economic Times BFSI, apple's share of India's smartphone market has grown to 8%, with its user base exhibiting significantly higher credit card ownership and spending intensity than the broader mobile population. According to PaymentsJournal, for Apple Pay India Timeline, Apple's initial India payments rollout was delayed following the RBI's April 2018 data localization directive and legacy SMS-based two-factor authentication rules.
Apple Pay will operate outside India's dominant digital payments framework, which continues to process the vast majority of retail transaction volume. In August alone, the Unified Payments Interface handled 24.51 billion transactions valued at Rs 29.82 lakh crore, accounting for roughly 84 percent of the country's total digital payment volume through major applications like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm.
The service arrives alongside growing domestic competition in proximity payments, following the National Payments Corporation of India rollout of its own UPI Tap and Pay feature in September. That domestic capability provides UPI users with an NFC-based tap option independent of foreign tokenized card networks.
Setting up Apple Pay in India will mirror the user experience established in international markets, requiring cardholders to add supported credit cards to the Wallet application on an iPhone or Apple Watch where details are stored in tokenized form. Transaction authentication will rely entirely on biometric verification via Face ID or Touch ID rather than traditional personal identification numbers or one-time passwords.
The technical workflow was cleared by a regulatory adjustment enacted by the Reserve Bank of India last year, which permitted biometric authentication standards for card-based transactions. Further details regarding exact public rollout dates and broader financial institution participation remain unconfirmed pending official corporate announcements.
