Flex by Google Pay Aims to Redefine Everyday Credit in India

A recent announcement by Google has revealed that the tech giant is extending its push into India’s financial services market. The plan is to launch a UPI-powered, digital, co-branded credit card called Flex in the country.

Google Pay Rolls Out Flex Card

Flex by Google Pay is a credit card built on the RuPay network, and it was specifically designed to match India’s financial needs. Google will launch it in partnership with Axis Bank, and it will be powered by India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Google’s announcement said: “At Google Pay, over the years, we’ve aimed to make credit simple and accessible for everyone, with education and choice as key levers behind our offerings. This has ranged from integrating AI-powered support guides to broadening the range of credit options available through trusted financial institutions.”

It continued to explain that most recently, it deepened this commitment by onboarding IDFC First Bank, as well as L&T Finance, PayU Finance, and SMFG India Credit, which all became its latest partners. Google went on to explain that this collaborative approach was successful at expanding credit access to over 15,000 PIN codes, with a vast majority of loans empowering users in Tier 2+ cities.

Now, however, the company says that it is excited to focus on a different key opportunity, which is everyday credit.

Reorganizing India’s Credit Ecosystem

The announcement explained that democratizing credit requires more than just access – it also needs to strengthen the complete credit ecosystem. This means that both the long-term needs that personal loans solve for and the everyday transactional credit that helps regular people manage daily expenses need addressing.

Google believes that credit cards can be a powerful tool for financial flexibility, but even today, transactional credit in India remains underpenetrated, with only around 50 million credit card holders in the entire country. This opens up a unique opportunity to completely reimagine the experience for the next generation of card users.

This is where Google Pay’s Flex comes in, making the credit card experience as intuitive and ubiquitous as the UPI payments people make every day. All of it is backed by Google Pay app, which already provides a trusted and secure experience.

The launch continues Google’s long-standing approach of partnering deeply with India’s financial ecosystem in order to build helpful and scalable solutions.

With Flex, users can benefit from a simple digital application coupled with the ability to pay anywhere at any time, and get instant rewards, all while being able to control flexible repayments.