Apple Pay is finally live in India - but what was the hold up?

30 Sep 2026 Apple Pay is finally live in India - but what was the hold up? With Apple Pay going live in India today, good time to share my rabbit hole from last month, when I realised: GPay on Android allows Visa tap & pay, but GPay on iPhone doesn’t. US-issued Brex cards worked via Apple Pay on Indian POS terminals. But Apple Pay didn’t accept Indian cards. My Garmin watch wallet still doesn’t accept Indian cards. The timing is interesting too. UPI MDR kicking in 15 days and a potential tailwind for card tap & pay. Anyway, here’s how it actually works, to the best of my knowledge. Every tap & pay needs 4 yes from different players in the ecosystem: The phone maker allowing NFC access to the wallet app // Apple, Google, Samsung, Garmin. The card network issuing a token for the card // Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, Diners Your bank agreeing to put the card in the wallet. // and pays the wallet a fee for it. The regulator accepting how authentication happens. // in India, RBI’s two-factor…