UAE to become 1st Middle East country to issue Indian card payment network RuPay

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will soon become the first country in the Middle East to witness the launch of the RuPay card, as India continues to expand its home-grown card payment network.

UAE will mark RuPay’s third international debut in 2019, following Bhutan and Singapore.

Starting next week, as many as 12 major businesses in UAE will start accepting the RuPay card. The seven-year-old card scheme has been launched in the country by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-backed National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

RuPay competes with global payments network behemoths, primarily MasterCard and Visa, in India. The card has limited global presence as of now, even as it has tied up with several global payment networks so that customers can make payments and access cash while travelling abroad.

The people who are travelling international generally shy away from RuPay cards due to lack of awareness and brand appeal, along with the higher acceptance of other global payment networks. Because of this, the banking regulator is planning to widen the scope of usage of RuPay globally to boost the brand.