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NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), a fully-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has forged a strategic partnership agreement with Al Etihad Payments (AEP) to implement a Domestic Card Scheme (DCS) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). AEP is an indirect subsidiary of the Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE). The partnership aligns with NIPL’s mission to share its knowledge and expertise to aid other nations in establishing their own cost-effective and secure payment systems.
Under the agreement, NIPL and AEP will collaborate to develop, implement, and operationalise the national domestic card scheme in the UAE. India’s DCS solution is founded on core principles of sovereignty, rapid market entry, innovation, digitisation, and strategic independence. NIPL’s DCS solution encompasses a RuPay stack along with value-added services such as fraud monitoring and analytics. NIPL will also support AEP in formulating operational regulations for their DCS solution.
The DCS will facilitate the growth of e-commerce and digital transactions in the UAE, bolster financial inclusion, support the UAE’s digitisation goals, increase alternative payment options, reduce the cost of processing payments, and elevate the UAE’s global competitiveness and position as a leader in the payments industry.
RuPay is an indigenous, highly secure, and extensively adopted card payment network in India. The cards have debit, credit, and prepaid options, with a current circulation exceeding 750 million cards. RuPay cards constitute over 60% of the total cards issued in India, with one out of every two Indians now possessing a RuPay card. These cards are distributed across the entire spectrum of banking institutions, including public sector, private, and small banks.
According to the government, India’s globally acclaimed Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is catalysing a profound transformation in the payment landscape. The DPI framework comprises three integral components: digital identity, digital payments, and digital data exchange layers. The convergence of these elements is the driving force behind the fintech revolution currently unfolding in India.
In India, almost every adult has access to banking services, a means of remote authentication (via Aadhar), and affordable, efficient access to the internet through mobile connectivity. A combination of these factors makes India the third largest fintech ecosystem in the world, with rapidly surfacing unicorns. Over the past five years, India has experienced an exponential surge of 367% in the number of customers engaging in digital transactions, boasting an active customer base exceeding 340 million.
Over the last few years, India has demonstrated its expertise in deploying DPI and effectively delivering public services, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, several countries have expressed a keen interest in gaining insights from India’s achievements.
Earlier this year, India signed several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Sierra Leone, Antigua & Barbuda, and Armenia to exchange successful national-level digital solutions to enhance digital transformation efforts. As reported by OpenGov Asia, these MoUs will grant the countries access to India Stack for implementing digital transformation projects.
India Stack is a collection of indigenously developed APIs and digital public assets that strive to enable the widespread use of digital identity, data, and payments as fundamental economic elements. The collaboration is expected to create more job opportunities in the information technology sector. Top of Form
