Apple is reportedly in talks with HDFC Bank in India to launch its co-branded credit card as known as “Apple Card”. This was first reported by Moneycontrol as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently met with the CEO and MD of HDFC Bank, Sashidhar Jagdishan during his India trip, in which he inaugurated the first two Apple Stores in India.
According to Moneycontrol, the Cupertino-based tech giant is also discussing its plans of launching Apple Pay in the country with a local payment body, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The company also held discussions with the central regulatory bank in India, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on special modification to their card but the RBI informed Apple to go ahead with the usual procedure for launching a co-branded credit card. Apple was looking for some special modifications to its card from the standard regulation of the country.
It is unclear whether the company wants to integrate Apple Pay with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) like Google did or if it will go with the regular tap-to-pay payments based on Near Field Communication (NFC). The sources said that the discussions are in a very early phase and the launch date of those services cannot be determined.
Apple recently opened its first two flagship stores in India this year. One is Apple BKC in Mumbai and the other one is Apple Saket, in Delhi.
