RuPay credit cards to be rolled out soon

New Delhi: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the nodal agency for digital payment systems in the country, will soon launch its RuPay credit cards for which it has roped in a few banks, a top official said.

"Our credit cards will be launched soon. These would be RuPay credit cards. A pilot is going on with five banks. In the pilot, about 7,200 transactions have taken place," NPCI MD & CEO A P Hota said.

Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Andhra Bank and Union Bank are working under the pilot project.

"Three more banks will come under credit card product. We will launch the RuPay credit cards soon," Hota said in an interview to PTI.

Besides, the agency will also roll-out an inter-operable tap-and-go card for transit fare payments in buses and metro trains.

"We will start these inter-operable tap-and-go cards for transit payment for metro and bus ride. We are starting this tap-and-go card with Bangalore first. From June, the service will be expanded to Kochi and Ahmadabad," Hota said.

Speaking about digital payment expansion in the country, he said NPCI has now about 2.30 lakh bank ATMs and 3 crore point of sales (POS) terminals under its fold that will help it reach to a maximum people through non-cash mode.

He said installation of micro ATMs by banks through their business correspondents and Aadhaar pay platform will help acceptance of digital payments in rural areas.

"Last year, for all the banks together on the NPCI platform, 9 billion transactions had happened. As per our rough estimate, it was close to one billion till April this year...I believe by 2017-18, it would not be a challenge to meet the 25 billion target as was set in budget," he added.

Hota also said that about 10-12 more banks will join the NPCI infrastructure soon. Currently, there are 44 banks who are already under it.