Across the markets of the future, cards can work a little differently, with domestic schemes built around local ways to bank and pay. Some of these networks account for a significant share of the cards in circulation, making them an important part of the local payment mix.
These cards are made to stay local. They’re designed to work within the country where they were issued, rather than across borders. So when a transaction is routed through international acquiring, the card may be declined, even if it works perfectly at checkout back home. For businesses accepting payments in these markets, relying only on international acquiring can mean missing a meaningful share of the cards people already have in their wallets.
India is a good example. RuPay was created as the country’s domestic card network and now accounts for around 60% of cards issued there. In Saudi Arabia, mada represents most cards issued in the country. The same pattern appears across other markets, with TROY in Türkiye, Elo in Brazil and Verve in Nigeria. There are many others, including Meeza in Egypt, Carnet in Mexico and OCA in Uruguay, each reflecting the local payment landscape of its market.
For Juan Cambon, SVP of Customer Operations at dLocal, understanding card acceptance starts with looking beyond the global networks:
When we talk about card acceptance, it’s easy to think of Visa and Mastercard as the whole picture, but in many emerging markets, they’re only part of it. The card in a customer’s wallet is often a domestic one, and that’s the card they expect to use.
Juan CambonSVP of Customer Operations at dLocalLocal schemes have developed around the banking infrastructure, consumer habits and payment preferences of the markets they serve. They can support features that matter locally, from contactless payments to installments and, in some markets, cards linked to real-time payment systems.
For many newly banked customers, debit is the first card they will have, making it an important entry point into eCommerce. As more people enter the formal financial system, debit can be one of the first ways they start spending online.
Credit plays a different role. In Latin America, for example, installments are part of the reason consumers choose cards in the first place. Being able to spread the cost of a bigger purchase over several payments can influence which card they use, and can make higher-value purchases more accessible. For merchants, that can translate into a higher average order value.
For consumers, that familiarity matters. They may already have a local card, an established credit limit or a preferred way to pay for larger purchases. One of the main reasons countries have local schemes in the first place is financial inclusion. Local card schemes are typically easier to access, with fewer barriers around credit history or banking relationships, which is why they tend to be a consumer’s first card and default option.
Local card schemes play by local rules
In markets like Türkiye and Brazil, installments are a big part of how people use credit cards day to day, especially for larger purchases. That is also reflected in local schemes such as TROY and Elo, where installments are an important part of the card offering.
Nigeria offers another interesting role example. Verve has expanded beyond its physical cards into eCash, a virtual card and wallet that lets customers pay and move money on their phones. At the same time, it is looking beyond Nigeria, with ambitions to become a regional card scheme and an expanding presence in markets such as Uganda.
What’s interesting about local schemes is that we can see that they don’t necessarily develop in isolation. They adapt to the payment habits around them. The boundaries between cards and other payment methods are becoming much less rigid.
There can be an economic advantage to local cards, too. It’s widely understood that domestic schemes typically operate with lower fee structures than international networks, since they aren’t subject to the same cross-border interchange and processing costs, and are often part of broader national pushes toward affordable, accessible digital payments.
A local card opening a new door in Nigeria
For a global music streaming platform, accepting cards in Nigeria initially meant accepting international networks such as Visa and Mastercard.
Then they added local card acquisition in NGN, opening the door to Verve, Nigeria’s domestic card scheme. The change was significant.
What started as an additional card option became a meaningful part of how customers pay, showing what happens when a global checkout makes room for a payment method people trust.