India’s ICICI Bank has teamed up with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch a series of credit cards on local payments network RuPay.
According to a Monday (Aug. 29) news release, the ICICI Bank Coral RuPay Credit Card — “Rubyx” and “Sapphiro” varieties are set to follow — is a contactless card that offers benefits that include reward points on daily purchases, complimentary domestic airport and railway lounge access, and discounts on movie tickets and dining.
In addition, the card offers benefits from the RuPay network like accident insurance coverage and dedicated personal concierge services.
See also: India’s ICICI Bank Opens Digital Banking Services to All Small Businesses
“We believe our association with ICICI Bank will provide a convenient, rewarding and delightful shopping experience to the users of this card,” NPCI Chief Operating Officer Praveena Rai said in the release.
“Over the years, RuPay has progressively established itself as a modern, contemporary and youthful brand by offering innovative and customer-oriented value propositions backed up by cutting-edge technology.”
Earlier this year, ICICI announced the debut of what it called India’s first comprehensive “digital ecosystem” for the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including customers of other banks.
The ecosystem is made up of three components: enhanced banking services for existing customers, banking services to MSMEs that use other banks, plus a range of value-added services for all. ICICI argued this is a change from the current system in which banks just provide these services for their own clients.
Read more: Cashfree Payments Teams With NPCI for Tokenization of RuPay Cards
This year also saw NPCI work with the payments and API banking solutions startup Cashfree Payments to offer tokenization on RuPay cards for its merchants.
Cashfree Payments’ Token Vault lets merchants’ customers save cards on merchants’ websites or apps and process card payments securely while complying with new guidelines from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Those guidelines — which became effective July 1 — forbid businesses and payment aggregators from saving customer card details on their platforms and say only card networks or issuing banks can store sensitive payment information.