JAYWAN is the domestic Debit Card of which of the following countries?

Correct — A, UAE. JAYWAN is the United Arab Emirates' first national domestic card scheme, run by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE, and built on the technology stack of India's RuPay through NPCI International Payments. It was announced during the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Abu Dhabi in February 2024 and the first cards were issued soon afterwards. The purpose of a domestic scheme is to keep routine card transactions inside the country's own switch rather than routing them through international networks, which lowers cost and keeps the transaction data at home.

• (b)Egypt — Egypt's domestic card scheme is Meeza, launched in 2019 by the Egyptian Banks Company. JAYWAN has no connection with it.
• (c)Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's national payment network is mada, operated through the Saudi Payments system, and it long predates JAYWAN.
• (d)Nepal — Nepal's domestic scheme is the NPS card issued through Nepal Clearing House. India's payment cooperation with Nepal has run mainly through UPI acceptance rather than a card scheme.

A domestic card scheme is a country's own card network, with its own brand, switch and rules, operating alongside the international networks. Countries build them to cut the fees paid abroad on domestic transactions, to keep payment data within national borders and to keep a payment system running if external access is disrupted. India's RuPay, launched by the National Payments Corporation of India in 2012, is the model that has now been exported, with the corporation's international arm licensing the technology to partner countries.

The item is really about where India's payments technology has travelled. RuPay's stack underlies JAYWAN in the UAE, and UPI has been linked with the UAE's AANI platform and accepted in several countries. The February 2024 visit is the anchor date for both. Keeping the pairing in mind — JAYWAN is a card, AANI is an instant payment platform — prevents the two from being confused, since both were in the news in the same week.

• JAYWAN is the domestic card scheme of the United Arab Emirates, launched by Al Etihad Payments.
• It is built on the RuPay technology stack, licensed through NPCI International Payments.
• It was announced during the Indian Prime Minister's visit to the UAE in February 2024.
• AANI is the UAE's instant payment platform, linked separately with India's UPI.
• Egypt's domestic card is Meeza and Saudi Arabia's national network is mada.

• Confusing JAYWAN, a card scheme, with AANI, an instant payment platform.
• Assuming a domestic card scheme replaces international networks; it runs alongside them.
• Attributing the scheme to India because the technology is Indian; the scheme is the UAE's own.

A one-line identification of a newly launched foreign payment product, anchored to a bilateral visit reported a few months before the examination.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  JAYWAN, the domestic card scheme of the United Arab Emirates, is built on the technology stack of

  • (a)UPI
  • (b)RuPay
  • (c)BHIM
  • (d)Bharat Bill Payment System

  Answer(b) RuPay — licensed through NPCI International Payments.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  RuPay was launched by which organisation?

  • (a)The Reserve Bank of India
  • (b)The National Payments Corporation of India
  • (c)The State Bank of India
  • (d)The Securities and Exchange Board of India

  Answer(b) The National Payments Corporation of India — in 2012, as India's domestic card scheme.