Apple Pay launches in India with Axis Bank as its first issuer

Apple has started rolling out Apple Pay in India, with Axis Bank as its first banking partner. Eligible Axis Bank cards on Visa and Mastercard can be added to Wallet for online and contactless payments. India's RuPay network is not supported at launch.

Apple says the service will be accepted by millions of merchants, including Blinkit, Croma, Ixigo, Reliance brands, Tata 1mg and Zomato, through payment providers such as Razorpay, Paytm, PayU, Pine Labs, Cashfree, JusPay, Mswipe and Worldline.

HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI Card are not live yet, as talks on commercial terms continue. Apple is asking for a fee of about 0.2% per transaction, according to people familiar with the matter cited by TechCrunch.

UPI accounts for about 84% of India's digital payment volume. The Reserve Bank of India's authentication rules, which allow device biometrics for card payments, made the launch possible.

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