Apple has been trying for some time to roll out its payment feature called Apple Pay in India, but hasn’t successfully negotiated terms with local authorities. Well, according to people familiar with the matter, the company is once again in talks with local regulatory bodies, specifically the NPCI, a special division of the Reserve Bank of India.
Currently, all payment methods in the country work besides UPI, which is a popular payment method in South Asian markets. Walmart’s PhonePe, Google’s GPay and Paytm are all UPI compliant and work in India.
Tim Cook has reportedly met with Indian authorities to negotiate a localized version of Apple Pay: customers will be able to scan QR codes and initiate UPI transactions without using third-party apps. Apple also wants users to confirm UPI transactions using the Face ID feature.
But don’t hold your breath. From what we could gather, Apple has not entered into negotiations with local partners (banks) and the Indian market is quite low on the priority list for the company. Around 90% of mobile devices run Android, so the country is a small market for Apple Pay.
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