RuPay to launch credit cards in Sept

Initial focus to be on two variants - regular and platinum; it will gradually extend portfolioto co-branded cards

After increasing its market share to 38 per cent in the debit card segment, RuPay, domestic card payment service provider, will be venturing into the credit card space this September.

It plans to issue 100,000 such cards in the first year of its launch. It will initially focus on two variants of a credit card — Regular and Platinum — and gradually extend its portfolio to offer co-branded cards.

“We have a significant opportunity to scale up and grab a significant share in the overall cards business, post the launch of the credit card and enhancing the Platinum debit card portfolio,” Dilip Asbe, chief operating officer at National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), told Business Standard.

RuPay is a brand owned and developed by NPCI (from 2012) to compete against global payment schemes of the likes of Visa and MasterCard. NPCI was promoted by 10 Indian banks. “We are targeting to capture 10 per cent of the entire credit cards market in India in a two to three-year timeframe,” said Asbe. From 2017, the target is to issue 500,000 to a million such credit cards every year. The market size of credit cards is presently 22.75 million users and the average value of spending a year is about Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

The brand, according to a joint study by JM Financial Securities and RuPay, has gained more than a third of market share in total cards and 18 per cent in volume of debit card transactions. “We have gained over 20 per cent market share in debit card-based ATM transactions and four per cent in debit card-based Point of Sale (PoS) transactions,” said Asbe.

NPCI is also optimistic about the 11 payments banks and eight small finance banks commencing operations over the next two years, helping it further its market share.

Asbe cited its cost competitiveness by nearly 50 per cent against the Visa network, a push from state-owned banks and growing acceptance across merchant platforms to drive RuPay's growth this year.