Credit card on UPI: NPCI in talks with banks for pilot

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation for retail payments in the country, will commence a pilot project of enabling credit cards on unified payments interface (UPI) over the next two months. 

The entity is in discussions primarily with public sector card companies like SBI Card, PNB Cards and Union Bank to commence the test run, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

Currently, UPI allows linking of bank accounts by mapping a bank account linked with a mobile numbers. 

This can be done through third-party apps like Google Pay, Amazon Pay, PhonePe, etc or the apps of banks like SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, etc.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed linking of credit cards with UPI, and said that to begin with Rupay credit cards will be linked with UPI in an effort "to provide additional convenience to users and enhance the scope of digital payments".

"NPCI is trying to make it live by end of August or September. It will start with a pilot, with a few banks who are ready to start this. There are some players like SBI Card, PNB Cards, Union Bank have shown interest, in addition to Axis Bank on the private side," an NPCI official said, adding that private banks have not been as forthcoming for the project as their public-sector counterparts.