New Delhi, July 10 -- The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has started providing financial incentives to banks and financial institutions to promote RuPay credit cards, directly challenging the market dominance of global giants Visa and Mastercard, reported ET.

This particular move marks a strategic change as NPCI focuses on expanding its footprint in the nation's rapidly growing credit card market.

Given Visa and Mastercard have long provided cashback and issuance based incentives and offers to banking institutions, NPCI is now focused on adopting a similar approach. "NPCI is becoming very competitive and is pushing domestic payment methods aggressively," a senior banker told ET.

It is important to keep in mind that the i...