Apple has paused its speedy expansion of Apple Pay in India given issues with regulations. Despite talking with banks and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the plan has been put on hold.
Apple is apparently worried about a recent data localization rule from the Reserve Bank of India. There have also been reported technical and design challenges related to NPCI’s Unified Payments Interface platform. One challenge was that Apple wanted to include Touch ID as an authentication factor for UPI payments, but NPCI didn’t agree to that. UPI’s mode of authentication is a four to six digit passcode.
The data localization rule cites that companies have to store payment data within India, a factor which has caused other companies, such as Amazon, WhatsApp, and PayPal, to reconsider their India-based plans as well.
Currently Apple Pay is available in Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the U.K., the U.S., and Taiwan.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via The Mac Observer and The Economic Times