Apple Pay could finally be arriving in India around the middle of this year.
Per AppleInsider and Bloomberg, a new report has backed up claims that India will finally gain access to Apple Pay after years of negotiations.
Apple is said to be in talks with three of the largest banks operating in the country:
- ICICI Bank
- HDFC Bank
- Axis Bank
The Bloomberg report, which cited unspecified sources, says that Apple is aiming to launch Apple Pay by mid-2026.
All of this comes on the heels of intense negotiations with both Visa and Mastercard, as well as the local government. This has caused delays in implementation nto the Indian marketplace since Apple Pay first launched in the U.S. in 2014.
For India, the absolutely dominant payment system is the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and companies have to apply to support it. App Store and Apple Music users in India can reportedly use UPI, but so far Apple has not applied for it to support Apple Pay.
Another part of the lengthy delay comes down to how to work with India’s Aadhaar biometric ID system, which doesn’t work on-device, as Apple’s Touch ID or Face ID do. Reportedly, this meant on-device systems could not be used, although both Google Pay and Samsung Wallet have been supported in India for several years.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and Bloomberg
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