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Good practice Imported

Union Bank of India's SPARSH — India's First Braille-Embossed Credit Card for Blind and Visually Impaired Customers

India · Mumbai · See the India profile · See the Mumbai profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 68% 56/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In October 2025 Union Bank of India launched Union SPARSH, marketed as India's first Braille-embossed credit card: Braille lettering, a tactile orientation notch and an optional cardholder photo, issued on the RuPay network for blind and visually impaired customers.

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Union Bank of India
Period
October 2025 – ongoing
Keywords
banking, fintech, accessibility, financial inclusion

Context

In October 2025, Union Bank of India launched Union SPARSH, marketed as India's first Braille-embossed credit card for blind and visually impaired customers.

Activities

The card features Braille embossing of the bank's name for tactile identification, a notch cut into one edge so the card can be oriented correctly by touch, and an optional cardholder photograph for added security, issued on the RuPay payment network.

Results

The product won Gold in the Leadership - Credit Card category of the SKOCH BFSI Awards 2025-26, alongside recognition for Union Bank's broader 'Digital Journey for Credit Cards' accessibility work, following SKOCH's independent, criteria-based review process.

Conclusions

As a newly launched product, no independent data on cardholder uptake, geographic availability, or user-experience evaluation has yet been published.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Cost not disclosed.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Launched October 2025.
Staffing & skills
Union Bank of India card design and issuance team

Conditions for success

  • tactile design features (Braille embossing, orientation notch) requiring no special reader hardware
  • issuance on an existing payment network (RuPay)

Common failure modes

  • no independent uptake or user-experience data yet published

Where it fits

Governance type
public-sector bank
Scale
national
Income level
lower-middle income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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