RBI allows linking credit cards with UPI; to start with Rupay

Now credit cards can be linked with Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the Reserve Bank of India proposed on Wednesday (June 8). Linking the two will help expand the reach of the real-time payment system, the apex bank thinks.

Users of Rupay credit cards will be the first to get the benefit, thus giving them more options while making payments through UPI.

Watch: RBI nod for UPI payments via credit cards

At present, the UPI platform only facilitates transactions by connecting bank accounts using debit cards.

“…it is proposed to allow linking of credit cards to UPI,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the regulatory moves, along with the bi-monthly policy review.

He said that Rupay credit cards issued by the RBI-promoted National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will be enabled first, and will become available after system developments.

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Das said the new arrangement is expected to provide more avenues and greater convenience to customers paying through the UPI platform.

UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India, with over 26 crore unique users and 5 crore merchants onboarded on the platform, he added.

In May, 594.63 crore transactions amounting to ₹10.40 lakh crore were processed through UPI, Mr. Das said.

The interoperability of prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) has also facilitated access of PPIs to the UPI payment system for undertaking transactions, Das said.