In the world, the most popular card networks for payments are Visa, Mastercard and Amex. Russia has got Mir network. China’s network is Union Pay Co. India has developed Rupay network, India’s Rupay is promoted by NPCI since 2012. India promotes it aggressively. Visa and Mastercard are thus adversely affected. There are regulatory issues about Diners Club, Mastercard and Amex. There are sanctions against Russia and the card firms have boycotted it.

To foreign networks, we pay processing fees. In a period of sanctions, there is denial of service. Rupay has proportionately large share of use in 2020. Most users are debit card holders. They are poor spenders. People with purchasing power are not quite ready to do away with Visa, Amex or Mastercard. The crux of the issue is to persuade credit card holders to use Rupay cards. These cards must have acceptance abroad too. These must be accepted by e-commerce firms. In some foreign markets, because of the tie up with Discover Financial, Rupay cards are being accepted. There could be tie up with JCB. Still, this is not enough.

India can focus on UPI. Here India can tie up with Nexus like settlement agency. UPI has also signed up with Mashreque Bank for acceptance in the Gulf. Nexus network extends to 60 countries.

Singapore’s PayNow has tied up with Thailand’s PromptPay. It is a cross-country link. This is futuristic. Instead of relying on plastic, there should be focus on real-time fund transfers and to pay through QR codes.