UAE payment card to debut in mid-2024, says top Indian official

A payment card scheme introduced in the UAE this week is set to be operational by the middle of the next year, transforming the country’s payment systems and marking a new era in India-UAE technology partnership.

That’s according to Piyush Goyal, India's Minister of Commerce and Industry, who said: “We have made an offering which we are providing to other parts of the world. We are offering it to other countries like the UAE, Singapore… some of the countries have been first off the block (embrace it) and will obviously benefit from it.”

A strategic partnership agreement has been inked to develop and launch the domestic card scheme of the UAE based on India’s RuPay card stack.

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), inked an agreement with Al Etihad Payments (AEP) for the implementation of the domestic card scheme (DCS) in the UAE.

He stressed that this digital infrastructure framework enables governments, businesses, and individuals to perform electronic transactions seamlessly.

“The Indian payment system, the India stack is truly unique in its security systems, in its low cost and its speed of transactions. There were times when remittances from the UAE to India would take weeks and would cost huge amount of money.

“The exchange risk was added to the common man and the low middle class, hard-working individual, who saved some money for his family back home, remits it back…for him that 3, 4,5 per cent cost, that delay was quite a hurtful cost. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) through India stack, provides seamless transactions, real time transfer of money,” he added.

RuPay card is an Indian indigenous equivalent of Mastercard or Visa.

• India, UAE domestic card scheme will pave way to seamless payment for residents, says envoy