Friday, December 05, 2025 | 06:25 PM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

PPI rapidly catching on as a bottom-of-the-pyramid transaction system

These PPI options are fast becoming the cards of choice for the vast majority of Indians as per capita income creeps upwards.

PPIs have huge competitors from another corner of the same market, the payments banks space.
premium

PPIs have huge competitors from another corner of the same market, the payments banks space.

Subhomoy Bhattacharjee New Delhi
In the excitement over the allocation of bank licences for the private sector, a new category of licence offered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last year went almost unnoticed. That was when the RBI consolidated the rules for prepaid payment instruments (PPI), popularly understood as e-wallets or gift cards. 

In the process, the regulator has fast-forwarded a bottom-up card usage industry in India that is completely different from the world of bank-linked credit and debit cards. 

These PPI options are fast becoming the cards of choice for the vast majority of Indians as per capita income creeps upwards.