RBI Allows Credit Card Linking With UPI, Will Start With Rupay Cards
In order to further deepen the reach and usage of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday proposed to allow linking of credit cards to the instant real-time payment system.
"To start with Rupay credit cards will be enabled with this facility. This arrangement is expected to provide more avenues and convenience to the customers in making payments through UPI platform. This facility would be available after the required system development is complete," RBI stated.
Necessary instructions will be issued to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) separately, it added.
Currently, UPI facilitates transactions by linking savings or current accounts through users' debit cards.
UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India, with over 26 crore unique users and 5 crore merchants onboarded on the platform, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said.
In May, 594.63 crore transactions amounting to Rs 10.40 lakh crore were processed through UPI, he added.
The interoperability of prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) has also facilitated access of PPIs to the UPI payment system for undertaking transactions, the RBI chief further stated.
Welcoming the move, Freo Co-Founder and COO Anuj Kacker said, "While the implementation of this move still needs to be worked out, conceptually, we believe that this is a step in the right direction for the country's larger population. Over the last two years, we have witnessed a drastic adoption of UPI. Â With the added layer of a credit card linked to UPI, we believe that customers who didn't have access to a credit card previously but want the experience of a 30-day interest-free credit will now become a reality, thereby broadening the scope of digital payments."
The central bank also proposed to enhance the e-mandate limit on cards for recurring payments from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000.
Meanwhile, RBI raised the key interest rate by 50 basis points (bps) in a bid to cool persistently high inflation.
The monetary policy committee (MPC) raised the key lending rate or the repo rate by 50 bps to 4.90 per cent.
The Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate were adjusted higher by the same quantum to 4.65 per cent and 5.15 per cent, respectively.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
