Apple Pay goes live in India with Axis Bank Visa and Mastercard cards

Apple began rolling out Apple Pay in India on Sept. 29–30, making Axis Bank its first issuer partner in the world’s most populous country after years of delays in a market dominated by the Unified Payments Interface. At launch, eligible Axis Bank Visa and Mastercard credit cards can be added to Apple Wallet for contactless in-store payments and online or in-app checkout on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch; Mac support was described as coming later. TechCrunch reported that RuPay is not supported at launch and that acceptance depends on merchants and terminals enabled for the service, with Apple citing partners including Blinkit, Croma, Zomato and payment processors such as Razorpay, Paytm and Pine Labs. Unlike UPI’s bank-to-bank QR model, Apple Pay remains card-based, so each issuer and acquiring stack must integrate separately. Commercial terms remain a friction point: people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Apple is seeking roughly 20 basis points on transactions, and that HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI Card were not supporting the service at launch while negotiations continue. Apple and the banks did not respond to those comment requests in the TechCrunch report. Reuters had earlier reported Apple was preparing an October launch starting with Axis credit cards timing that matched the live Axis rollout. For Canadian travellers and remittance-heavy households watching India’s digital-payments stack, Apple Pay’s debut is less a UPI challenger than a premium-card wedge — useful where contactless cards already work, and limited where QR and RuPay still rule the till. Sources: TechCrunch; Business Standard; The Hindu.