Apple Pay is reportedly nearing its launch in India after a five-year absence from enabling credit and debit card transactions on its App Store and iCloud, a move necessitated by the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) tokenization mandate which Apple had previously not complied with, unlike competitors like Google Pay and Samsung Wallet. Apple has now restarted card payments by adhering to the tokenization guidelines, opting not to back up India's tokenized payment data on its local servers, and is reportedly in talks with major Indian banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank for integration, while the RBI's upcoming 2025 approval for biometric authentication for digital payments further paves the way for Apple's on-device payment system, which relies on Face ID and Touch ID.

Apple Pay is reportedly nearing its launch in India after a five-year absence from enabling credit and debit card transactions on its App Store and iCloud, a move necessitated by the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) tokenization mandate which Apple had previously not complied with, unlike competitors like Google Pay and Samsung Wallet. Apple has now restarted card payments by adhering to the tokenization guidelines, opting not to back up India's tokenized payment data on its local servers, and is reportedly in talks with major Indian banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank for integration, while the RBI's upcoming 2025 approval for biometric authentication for digital payments further paves the way for Apple's on-device payment system, which relies on Face ID and Touch ID.

Apple Pay is reportedly nearing its launch in India after a five-year absence from enabling credit and debit card transactions on its App Store and iCloud, a move necessitated by the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) tokenization mandate which Apple had previously not complied with, unlike competitors like Google Pay and Samsung Wallet. Apple has now restarted card payments by adhering to the tokenization guidelines, opting not to back up India's tokenized payment data on its local servers, and is reportedly in talks with major Indian banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank for integration, while the RBI's upcoming 2025 approval for biometric authentication for digital payments further paves the way for Apple's on-device payment system, which relies on Face ID and Touch ID.

Apple users in India have been waiting for a while to get their hands on Apple Pay. If reports are to be believed, Indian users could soon start using Apple Pay. But there is no official confirmation regarding this.

This comes as Apple has restarted the use of credit and debit cards for transactions on App Store and iCloud, which comes after a gap of five years, reports Moneycontrol.

The iPhone maker halted its card payments in India in 2021 after RBI mandated that merchants and payment platforms cannot store a user's card details and instead they must be stored as encrypted tokens within card networks like Visa and Mastercard. However, Google Pay and Samsung Wallet complied with the RBI law, continuing their card payments in India.

Apple backs up tokenised payment data on its local servers in the US, EU and China. But it will not back up data from India in adherence to RBI guidelines.

Apple Pay could soon be launched once the tech giant finalises partnership with at least one of the key banking giants in the country, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards.

RBI's approval for biometric authentication for digital payments in 2025 has also cleared a major hurdle for Apple Pay as the Cupertino giant uses default Face ID or Touch ID security.

However, once the regulatory road is clear, we can expect Apple to launch with its on-device payment system.  

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