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Zeta and Pluxee launch passkey authentication for RuPay prepaid-card payments
Our read
RuPay passkeys will make prepaid cards materially more competitive in ecommerce, but broad adoption will depend on proving that conversion gains persist without creating new account-recovery and fraud vulnerabilities.
For operators
Passkey-based RuPay prepaid payments could cut checkout friction and abandonment, making it worth prioritizing support where prepaid-card usage is meaningful.
Watch
NPCI announcements naming additional RuPay issuers, acquirers or payment gateways supporting passkeys.
Ask next
The report,
Zeta and Pluxee launched passkey authentication for RuPay prepaid-card online payments, replacing repeat SMS OTPs with biometric or device-PIN verification. The NPCI-enabled system aims to reduce fraud and checkout drop-offs, with Zeta planning expansion to additional RuPay issuers.
- Conventional OTP flow time15–25 seconds
- Passkey authentication time5–7 seconds
Channel facts
From the report. Source details below
| September 11, | 2026 announcement date |
|---|
Also in the report
- 5–7 seconds passkey authentication time
- 15–25 seconds conventional OTP flow time
- approximately 99% registration completion rate
- ₹21,367 crore digital payment fraud in FY2025
- more than five times the prior year
- April 1, 2026 RBI mandate effective date
What it means for online and offline
The launch creates partnership and integration opportunities with RuPay issuers, prepaid-program managers, and biometric-authentication providers as passkeys expand beyond the initial deployment.
Signals to track
- Published data on authentication time, checkout abandonment, authorization uplift and fraud performance after rollout.
- Reserve Bank of India or NPCI guidance on passkey, device binding, credential recovery and liability treatment.
- Growth in RuPay prepaid ecommerce transaction share relative to UPI, wallets and debit cards.
- Reports of account-recovery abuse, biometric spoofing concerns or materially higher false declines requiring OTP fallback.
Likely next moves
Our read of what comes next — analysis, not reported by the source.
- Expand passkey authentication from Pluxee prepaid cards to additional RuPay issuer portfolios and transaction categories.
- Pair passkeys with risk-based step-up controls, retaining stronger verification for new devices, unusual merchants and high-value payments.
- Measure checkout completion, authorization rates, support contacts, fraud losses and repeat online spend against OTP-based cohorts.
- Position prepaid cards as more viable for recurring and app-based commerce where OTP friction has historically depressed usage.
- Merchant payment gateways and checkout platforms add passkey-ready flows to avoid losing conversion gains to alternative payment methods.
The counter-case
The case against this reading — not reported by the source.
The rollout may improve checkout speed for a narrow set of Pluxee RuPay prepaid users without materially changing payment behavior at scale. Passkeys reduce OTP friction, but adoption depends on device compatibility, user enrollment, merchant implementation, and issuer-side readiness. Prepaid-card ecommerce volumes may also be too limited for this to be a meaningful omni-channel inflection point.
The source
Published
First seen