Apple halts card payments for Indian users, switches to UPI and net banking

New Delhi: To comply with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) recommendations on card storage and tokenisation, Apple has stopped taking debit and credit card payments for app purchases and subscriptions in India. In-app purchases will instead be limited to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and net banking transactions, according to the company.

"Beginning June 1, credit and debit cards will no longer be accepted for purchases or subscriptions on the App Store or other Apple services," the business warned, citing future Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restrictions.

Apple also stated that it will no longer store Indian consumers' credit card information on its servers.

Users can now load a pre-determined amount into their Apple Wallet using UPI and net banking to ensure that app subscriptions and purchases continue without interruption.

Subscriptions will continue as long as users have sufficient balance, according to the US-based technology company.

The RBI banned payment aggregators and gateways from storing consumer card information in their databases in March 2020. The central bank had given players until June 30, 2021 to comply. Following representations from many sector stakeholders, the regulator delayed the deadline by six months to December 31, 2021, and then pushed it out to June 30, 2022.

Several payment apps, including Paytm, Razorpay, and PhonePe, have released tokenization solutions in the recent year to help merchants avoid any disruption to customers during checkouts.