National Payments Corporation of India and Tokyo-based credit card company JCB International Co, have entered into a strategic partnership, paving the way for acceptance of JCB cards at all NPCI locations in India. The NCPI network has 1 million card merchants and 200,000 ATMs in the country. The partnership also envisages issuance of RuPay/JCB International cards by NPCI member banks. These cards will be globally accepted through the JCB network. This will be the first-ever JCB card issued in India.
A.P, Hota, MD and CEO, NPCI, said through this partnership NCPI can now offer new international RuPay cards with JCB brand, which are widely accepted throughout Asia. The RuPay/JCB International card will work as RuPay card in India and JCB card outside the country, he added.
“We will now target to launch JCB acceptance business in India around mid-2016 and RuPay/JCB International card issuing business later in the same year. NPCI-JCB strategic partnership would be marked as a key milestone in the Asian payment ecosystem and it will be a win-win situation for India and Japan to exchange and achieve card payment dynamism with a view to enhance the acceptance of RuPay cards at JCB’s network and vice versa,” said Hota.
Kimihisa Imada, deputy president, JCB International, said he hoped the new partnership will increase the acceptance level of JCB cards in India and provide a seamless and convenient consumer experience for JCB card memebrs as all the card merchants and ATMs in the country will accept JCB cards. “Issuing of RuPay/JCB card in the Indian market which has 1.2 billion population and strong economic growth will have a significant impact on JCB Interntional’s global business…. We are confident that the issuance of RuPay/JCB International card will contribute to the financial inclusion program promoted by the Indian government and NPCI,” he said.
