Apple Pay is on track to launch in India next month, starting with credit cards issued by Axis Bank. The move would finally bring Apple’s payment service to one of the few major economies where it still isn’t available.
According to a report from Reuters, three people familiar with the plans said Apple is preparing a phased rollout that begins with a single banking partner rather than a broad, multi-bank launch. Apple was already expected to target an October launch based on earlier reporting, and this report lines up with that timeline.
Axis Bank Will Be Apple Pay’s First Partner in India
Axis Bank is India’s fourth-largest credit card issuer, with 16.26 million active cards as of July, according to Reserve Bank of India data. Apple has also held talks with two larger rivals, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, but sources told Reuters neither has agreed on commercial terms yet. Apple declined to comment, HDFC did not respond to Reuters, and both ICICI and Axis said they had no comment.
Apple plans to add more lenders over time through separate, direct deals with each bank, the same bank-by-bank approach it has used to expand Apple Pay in other markets. No launch date has been confirmed by Apple or Axis Bank.
A Regulatory Change Cleared the Path for Apple Pay in India
Apple first signaled plans to bring Apple Pay to India back in 2017, and the effort spent years stuck behind regulatory and technical hurdles, including India’s data localization rules. One of the bigger obstacles was authentication. Indian card payments traditionally required specific verification steps that didn’t accommodate device-based biometrics.
The Reserve Bank of India changed that last year by allowing alternative authentication methods, including biometrics, for card payments. That update is what makes it possible for Face ID or Touch ID to authorize a payment made with an Indian bank card through Apple Pay.
Apple Pay Enters a Market Already Dominated by UPI
India’s digital payments market runs overwhelmingly through the Unified Payments Interface, the government-backed system that lets people pay by scanning a QR code, entering a phone number, or tapping a device. UPI accounts for roughly 84 percent of digital payment volume in the country, according to Reuters.
Apple’s opening is on the smartphone side rather than the payments side. The company’s share of India’s smartphone market has doubled to 8 percent since 2022, according to Counterpoint Research, and it recently topped $10 billion in annual sales in India for the first time. Apple Pay works by storing tokenized card details directly on a device, letting a user tap to pay without opening a separate app, and its addressable base in India will start out limited to iPhone owners who hold a card from whichever bank has signed on.
