Apple Pay Launches in India for Axis Bank Visa and Mastercard Users

3 articles · Updated · MacRumors · Sep 29

Apple Pay is now live in India, letting eligible Axis Bank credit card holders add Visa and Mastercard cards to iPhone and Apple Watch for contactless and online payments.
Axis Bank is the only supported issuer at launch, while RuPay is incompatible and major banks including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI Card have not yet joined.
Merchant acceptance may be patchy at first because payment terminals must add Apple Pay support, so the service will not work at every contactless checkout.
India remains a tough market for Apple Pay because UPI handles about 84% of the country's digital transaction volume and does not work with Apple's wallet service.
The launch follows roughly a decade of expansion rumors, with regulatory hurdles long slowing Apple's entry into one of the world's biggest digital payments markets.