Rupay Debit Card

RuPay Debit Card is an indigenous domestic debit card introduced in May 2014 by National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) - a section 25 company set up by RBI and 10 commercial banks in India. This card is accepted at all ATMs (for cash withdrawal) and at most of the point of sale (PoS) machines at merchant locations (for making cashless payment for purchases) in the country. It is the Indian version of Visa or MasterCard. As part of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), RuPay card is distributed and it also provides accidental insurance cover upto Rs.1 lakh without any charge to the customer (However NPCI pays the premium @ Rs. 0.47/card). To get benefit of Accidental Insurance Cover, RuPay Debit Card must be used at least once in 45 days. National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended this 45 days usage condition to 90 Days for RuPay Classic cardholders with effect from 25 November 2015.

“RuPay” is coined from two terms - Rupee and Payment.

RuPay has been conceived to fulfill RBI’s vision to offer a domestic, open-loop, multilateral system which will allow all Indian banks and financial institutions in India to participate in electronic payments (including e-commerce). Transaction and customer data related to RuPay card transactions will reside in India. Since the transaction processing will happen domestically, it would lead to lower cost of clearing and settlement for each transaction and hence is suited for targeting under-penetrated/untapped consumers segments in rural areas that do not have access to banking and financial services.

RuPay cards are considered more economical for banks to offer it to their customers. It offers complete inter-operability between various payments channels and products. NPCI currently offers varied solutions across platforms including ATMs, mobile technology, cheques etc. and is nurturing RuPay cards across these platforms. RuPay e-Commerce solution was launched on 21 June, 2013. RuPay is well poised to support issuance of credit and prepaid cards by banks in India and thereby supporting the growth of retail electronic payments in India.

It is estimated that Rupay Debit Card accounts for 36% of debit cards in India (as per an announcement made by the Hon'ble PM on 6 November 2015).

Contributed by

• Rosemary Abraham, IES(2006)
• Email- rosemary.a@nic.in