Oman is expected to adopt and begin using India’s payment gateway, RuPay, and the UPI platform – both of which are direct competitors to Mastercard- and Visa-enabled services – in a recent disclosure by Indian news media.

This revelation comes on the heels of an official visit by V. Muraleedharan, the Minister of State for External Affairs, to the Sultanate today. An agreement is expected to be signed between the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) for cooperation in digital finance and payments for the usage of RuPay and UPI.

While details on the agreement are still scarce, it is understood that His Highness Sayyid Badr Bin Hamad Bin Hamood Al Busaidi, the Foreign Minister of Oman will be holding an audience with the Indian official.

As per the Indian news media platform, Wion, the RuPay card is used or is in the process of being used in the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. UAE was the first country in the GCC to adopt RuPay; an agreement signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country in 2019.

RuPay is an Indian multinational financial services and payment service system, conceived and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India on 26th March 2012. It was created to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India’s vision of establishing a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments.

The Indian payment gateway offers services comparable to Visa or Mastercard – and has been widely adopted with over 603mn cards issued. RuPay reportedly has a presence in Singapore, Bhutan, and the Maldives.

The adoption of RuPay will further Oman-India relations; a tie that has witnessed nearly US$7.5bn in investments from the Republic in the Sultanate. Bilateral trade between the two nations is also on the rise, with total trade in fiscal year 2021-2022 touching nearly US$10bn.