Apple is reportedly holding discussions with Indian banks and international card networks to launch its payment service in the country.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are among the lenders involved in the talks, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, the iPhone maker is targeting the launch of Apple Pay around the middle of 2026. The schedule may change, but the talks indicate preparations are underway.

Apple is also in conversations with Mastercard and Visa, the people told the publication.

Apple refused to comment on the report. Representatives for the banks and the payment networks also did not immediately respond to Bloomberg’s queries.

Apple Pay in India is expected to support India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) alongside card-based payments. UPI is widely used across India for real-time transfers and merchant transactions.

India’s digital payments market includes a mix of global and local providers. Alphabet’s Google Pay, Walmart-controlled PhonePe and Amazon.com dominate payments services in the country, alongside domestic players such as Paytm.

It is one of the world’s fastest-growing digital payments markets, supported by a large base of smartphone users, low-cost mobile data and public digital infrastructure.

Digital payments in India relies largely on one-time passwords via text message or PIN to authenticate transactions. However, India’s central bank introduced rules late last year that allow biometric authentication for digital payments, including fingerprint and facial recognition.

Apple Pay is expected to benefit from this as it uses Face ID or Touch ID to approve payments for in-store tap-to-pay transactions, as well as for purchases on websites and in apps.

Recently, Visa recently enabled support for Chinese cardholders to pay using Apple Pay. The update allows eligible customers to add Visa cards from participating banks and make payments at overseas merchants that accept Visa.

"Apple may debut payment service in India this year- report" was originally created and published by Electronic Payments International, a GlobalData owned brand.

 

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