Electronic payment infrastructure provider NPCI today entered into a pact with China UnionPay to enable people from China to use ATMs and make card-based purchases in India.
It will also help domestic banks, which have put up ATMs or the point-of-sale machines (PoS), earn transaction fees of up to USD 1 per transaction, RBI-promoted National Payments Corporation's (NPCI) CEO and managing director AP Hota told reporters.
"The China UnionPay (CUP) cards can be used at all PoS machines and ATMs in the country, which run on the NPCI network," he said.
The NPCI and the CUP have signed a memorandum of understanding on the same, he said, adding that the commercial details are yet to be worked out.
Over two million people from China, who doesn't have international payment cards like Visa and MasterCard visiting India annually, stand to benefit from the tie-up, he said.
There are over 1.95 lakh ATMs and 1.1 million PoS terminals that run on NPCI's National Financial Switch, Hota said.
The announcement comes barely a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's China visit, but Hota said the tour did not have anything to do with the partnership.
NPCI already has a tie-up with Discover, which allows for the RuPay cards to be used in over 170 countries, he said.
Apart from that, the RBI-promoted NPCI also has a tie-up with Japan Credit Bureau, he said, adding the RBI has given in-principle nods for all the partnerships.
The NPCI is doing a pilot project for the RuPay international cards with Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India and Saraswat Bank customers and will roll it out commercially by June, he said.
