New Delhi: Apple is in the process of launching Apple Pay in India and experts say that Axis Bank is one of the first banks to have it live.
Apple Pay has not been available in any large country for years other than India. Now, Apple has been discussing with big Indian banks like HDFC bank, ICICI bank and Axis Bank to launch the service. The company also has been in communication with international credit card companies as it readies the service for this region.
Apple Pay may be rolling out to India as early as October 2026, according to reports. The initial offering will centre on the typical card payment method, so that individuals can add associated Visa and Mastercard into Apple Wallet and hold them there to be utilized for touchless payments with an iPhone or Apple Watch.
The first might be a large piece missing, though. Since the majority of Indians already use UPI to pay for goods and services with their phones, support for the same will almost certainly be absent from Apple Pay. UPI is hugely popular in India, which will make it unlikely to capture the attention of mass users of Apple Pay in the immediate future.
Already there are some small indications that banks are preparing themselves. A few users of Axis Bank with some card types have begun receiving a terms and conditions page when they attempted to add the credit card to Apple Wallet on the Reddit and social media platforms. While the card is yet to be officially introduced, this indicates that Axis Bank’s systems are in the preparations mode.
There has been no official word from Apple on when it will go live, who will participate or how it will take place. All of this is based on reports and on first signs not plans confirmed by Apple until it makes a formal announcement.
If Apple does introduce an app, users of the iPhone and Apple Watch would be able to pay with a single double-click on a button and a simple tap on a reader device to pay, instead of opening an application and entering a pin. This would make Apple’s presence more prominent in India, the world’s biggest and fastest-growing smartphone market.
