You are currently viewing Decoupling Credit Card and Card Network

Decoupling Credit Card and Card Network

The success of UPI technology acknowledged worldwide is an accomplishment. But at the same time credit card customers of various financial organizations including banks had to do a tradeoff between either selecting the card or selecting the card network. For example, if a customer wishes to have an HDFC bank credit card then by default that customer has to use the card network of Visa and not indigenous RuPay. The Reserve Bank of India has come up with a plan to decouple the credit card provider from the credit card network provider. According to earlier policy, the credit card companies have to collaborate with a credit card network first and then offer the bundled product to the customers. Credit card companies were forced by the credit card network providers to stick to offering the customers a preassigned network or vice versa and this practice was followed by all the network or all the credit card companies. The bargaining power mattered between the credit card company and the credit card network.  Now the bargaining power has shifted to the customers. It means that the customers will decide which organization’s credit card they want and the customer will decide which credit card network they want. This will boost the RuPay owned by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) over foreign-owned Visa and Mastercard. It is scheduled to be executed during the third quarter of the current financial year. Such policy changes matter a lot for marching towards self-reliance in the financial sector.

Leave a Reply