Fintech firm Google Pay plans to add more co-branded card issuers

Google Pay has launched its co-branded credit card with Axis Bank on RuPay, enabling UPI linkage, and said it will add more issuers to widen reach across user segments

Fintech firm Google Pay is planning to scale up its category of cobranded credit cards in partnership with multiple issuers starting with Axis Bank on the RuPay network.  

The company launched its first ever Google Pay Axis Bank Flex credit card on Wednesday marking its foray in the space. The card, operated on the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) RuPay network, will allow users to link this card with Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Apart from Axis Bank, the company plans to add more credit card issuers in the future to serve multiple markets.  

“We’re starting with one bank that is Axis (Bank), but we are adding issuers as we go along. The reason is that different ones will serve different markets,” Sharath Bulusu, Senior Director - Product Management, Google Pay, told Business Standard. 

 

He added that the company planned to partner with banks with a view to access coverage to their user base.  “We choose the partners so that we get that coverage over time across all of our user base. The end goal is to build a complete ecosystem from every kind of need the user has and for every kind of user. As long as the user is deserving of credit, we should be able to get them back,” Bulusu explained. 

The launch of the Flex co-branded card comes at a time when multiple UPI apps have launched their versions of credit cards. 

PhonePe launched co-branded credit cards with SBI Card and HDFC Bank this year. Cred rolled out an IndusInd co-branded credit card whereas fintech super.money has co-branded credit card partnerships with Axis Bank, Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Credit-on-UPI fintech Kiwi has a co-branded partnership with AU Small Finance Bank and Yes Bank. 

 

“The acceptance of RuPay on the one side along with the usage of RuPay (cards), both are growing… The answer is not to rush in and distribute (or) push the users. The answer is, when the user needs it, make it super simple for them to be able to pull,” Bulusu said. 

 

He said that 530 million users have transacted using Google Pay to date, and more than 20 million merchants were taken on board with Google Pay for Business. 

 

Moreover, on the payments fraud front, he explained that the app had prevented potential fraud worth Rs 13,000 crore in one year.