Apple is preparing to launch Apple Pay in India as soon as next month, beginning with Axis Bank credit cards, according to Reuters‘ Ashwin Manikandan and Gopika Gopakumar.
Three people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the company is lining up a limited first wave of support among Indian lenders rather than a nationwide launch across every bank at once. India remains one of the few large economies where Apple Pay is still unavailable. A single-bank start would give the company a foothold in the world’s most populous market while it continues talks with others.
Axis Bank, based in Mumbai, is India’s fourth-largest credit card issuer. As of July it had 16.26 million active credit cards, trailing HDFC Bank, SBI Cards and ICICI Bank, Reserve Bank of India data cited in the Reuters report show.
Apple Pay has also been in discussions with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, two of Axis Bank’s larger private-sector rivals, but those lenders have not yet agreed commercial terms, two of the sources told Reuters. Apple and HDFC did not respond to Reuters‘ requests for comment. ICICI Bank and Axis Bank declined to comment. All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private.
The Apple Pay service lets iPhone users tap to pay with tokenized card details stored on the device, without opening a separate payments app. Apple plans to add more banks over time through direct, lender-by-lender deals, similar to the phased approach it has used in other countries, one of the sources said.
The timing follows a regulatory change last year, when the Reserve Bank of India allowed biometric authentication for card payments. That opened the door for Face ID and Touch ID to work with Indian bank cards. Apple’s smartphone share in India has also grown, doubling to 8% since 2022, according to Counterpoint Research figures cited by Reuters.
Even so, Apple Pay will enter a crowded field. India’s homegrown Unified Payments Interface dominates digital payments, accounting for 84% of digital payment volume through QR codes, phone numbers and tap-and-pay. Any Apple Pay rollout will have to compete in that environment rather than replace it.
If the Axis Bank launch proceeds next month as sources described to Reuters’ Ashwin Manikandan and Gopika Gopakumar, it would mark Apple’s first formal step into Indian tap-and-pay card transactions — a small start, but one that could widen if talks with larger issuers eventually close.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Pay vs. QR code-based payments is like a Mac Studio vs. an IBM Selectric.
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