State Bank of India (SBI) will be installing 6 lakh point of sale (PoS) terminals, across the country where shoppers can make payments by swiping their credit, debit or pre-paid cards.
At present there are 4.5 lakh PoS terminals in the country, out of which few belong to SBI.
Brajesh Varma, deputy general manager - new business, SBI said, “We have select PoS terminals installed in Manipal University and Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad, where the installations were done on request to benefit students. But right now most are at colleges and universities.”
The bank also have plans to start a separate company to take care of the card payment network, for this bank has short-listed 3-4 joint venture partners, including global players.
Varma informed, putting to rest speculation about SBI having shelved the plan, “The timeframe is yet to be finalized, but in two years we should have around 6 lakh merchant terminals”.
Sachin Khandelwal, senior general manager, ICICI Bank has been recently nominated the chairman of the Prepaid International Forum, said, it’s a huge target.
SBI will be installing large number of PoS terminals in smaller cities.
Verma stated, “Tier-I cities have already been covered by the private sector banks. We will build this network in Tier-II and Tier-III cities”.
According to plan, the joint venture partner name will be finalized in a couple of months and the company will start operations in 6-8 months.
The bank will not wait for the new company to be formed it will start installing terminals.
SBI’s plan is close to private sector ICICI Bank who is selling its network to First Data Corporation. It is expected the Reserve Bank of India will allow to cardholders to withdraw cash from PoS terminals installed with shopkeepers, mall stores, etc.
It is believed that SBI has changed the name it had initially decided on for the venture.
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