RuPay cards will be acceptable at all PoS by January, 2013: NPCI

As per National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), RuPay cards will be acceptable at all PoS (Point of Sales) terminals in the country from January, 2013.

What are RuPay cards?

• RuPay card is a domestic debic card, launched by NPCI in April 2011.
• The card provides a platform to carry out electronic transactions at PoS terminals.

What is PoS terminal?

• PoS or Point of Sale terminal is a device where debit and credit cards are swiped to perform electronic transactions.

What is the present status of RuPay cards?

• At present, RuPay is acceptable in 48,000 merchant terminals throughout the country.
• As per RBI, currently, there are around 91,000 ATMs and 6.5 lakh PoS terminals in the country. While the RuPay cards are acceptable at all ATMs, most of PoS terminals are yet to accept it.
• At present, around 22 banks use the RuPay card-based payment system in the country.
• As RuPay provides a cost advantage of around 40% than the international payment systems like Visa or MasterCard, NPCI is hopeful that it will be adopted by more banks to save cost.