The country's largest lender State Bank of India Monday formed a joint venture with Hitachi to create a digital payment network.
It is planned that Hitachi Payments will invest 26 per cent in SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI, and both parties will proceed to apply for regulatory approvals, a joint statement said.
Hitachi Payments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, and SBI have signed a definitive agreement to enter into a joint venture for the establishment of a card acceptance and future ready digital payments platform for India, it said.
"Financial services market in India is making remarkable progress led by economic growth, financial inclusion policy and Digital India initiatives. Bank account holders have increased substantially in the past few years and as a result, banking transactions on ATMs and digital transactions have correspondingly increased dramatically," it said.
The SBI with more than 6,00,000 POS terminals is the largest merchant acquirer in the market in terms of terminals through its subsidiary SBI Payment.
Through this joint venture, Hitachi enters a new field of business, which is the merchant acquiring business in India, it said.
Hitachi will contribute to the development and expansion of digital payments service business in India by creating a digital payments platform that will enable better convenience and quality through integrating our individual strengths, it said.
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