JCB issues new credit card in India

Although India has a fast-growing economy, the dominant method of payment is still cash, which makes the country an untapped market for the credit card companies.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Japan Credit Bureau (JCB) International have announced the launch of a new credit card -- RuPay JCB Global Cards -- in Mumbai. The partnership was established in 2015 to connect to a global network of merchants and ATMs.

At the event, official dignitaries and bank representatives celebrated the collaboration between India and Japan.

"Our basic strategy is to have the JCB card used all over the world and not only in Japan. Pursuing the same, we chose ten countries, with Asia being the focus to expand our business. India is number one among those ten countries taking into consideration its huge potential. And that is why we are presenting our JCB card here," said Kimihisa Imada, the President and COO of JCB International.

Where the first phase of the partnership between NPCI and JCB enabled merchants and ATMs in India to accept foreign JCB credit cards, the second phase would enable Indian travellers to use their JCB credit card in foreign countries where the card is accepted.

"This credit card is RuPay in India and JCB in foreign countries. Our hope is to have middle income and high-income customers use these credit cards, specifically people who will go abroad, for business or for leisure. Our target is to get people who travel to sign up for our cards," Imada added.

"We've seen very good success in India. So we are accepted in all ATMs and post machines and we were really looking to address our acceptance globally. Now, on the other hand, the JCB is one of the pioneering networks in Japan and they also built a very good global card acceptance network, so we wanted to leverage the network the JCB brings into play," said Praveena Rai, the COO of NCPI.

Eight banks in India will issue RuPay JCB Global Cards. NPCI and JCB are offering a special cashback programme for transactions at selected popular destinations.