State Bank of India (SBI) and Hitachi Payment Services Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Hitachi Ltd, have recently formed a joint venture (JV), SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd (SBIPSPL) for exploring a digital payments platform for India and other countries in the region.
This Joint Venture, which comprise 74% stake by SBI and rest by Hitachi, will facilitate expansion of the digital payments landscape in India by creating a state-of-the-art digital payments platform that will enable offering of innovative products to suit the requirement of all segment of merchants, leveraging the brand value and unparalleled distribution network of SBI and bringing Artificial Intelligence and other technological capabilities of Hitachi to SBIPSPL.
The association came into existence as a result of SBI’s exercise to sell its 26% shares in SBIPSPL. In October, SBI had shortlisted three companies – Hitachi, Worldline and First Data Corporation – for a JV in the Merchant Acquiring Business (MAB) and had proposed to transfer its business of deploying credit card swipe machines to the new entity.
Merchant Acquiring Business (MAB) refers to the mechanism of facilitating merchant payment for goods and services through the medium of a card and Application based acceptance solutions.
Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India, said, “Through this joint venture, we aim to maintain our position as the top acquirer in the merchant digital payments space. We will also utilize business analytics to develop strategies to penetrate into hitherto untouched Indian towns and cities through merchant-centric digital payments solutions.”
Toshiaki Higashihara, President & CEO of Hitachi, Ltd., Japan, said “Hitachi’s joint venture with SBI, will further contribute to the development of digital payments in India by building a state-of-the-art digital payments platform and leveraging SBI’s robust customer network. This coincides with Hitachi’s vision to improve people’s lives by providing digital solutions in India and other countries.”
Since 2011, Hitachi Payment Services has been providing building and developing, technology and management services for the card and digital acceptance payment network of State Bank of India.