State Bank of India (SBI) has collaborated with Hitachi Payment Services to introduce a merchant acquiring joint venture for establishing a “state-of-the-art” digital payments platform for India and other countries in the region.
The joint venture will facilitate expansion of the digital payments landscape in India and both companies hope to offer innovative products to suit the requirement merchants.
Kenji Hiramatsu, ambassador of Japan to India, talked a strong relationship between the two countries and the importance of collaboration.
He said: “I am confident that the largest Bank of India and one of the biggest companies in Japan through this partnership would take digital payments to new heights in the country.”
Dubbed ‘SBI Payment Services’ the platform was first announced back in October. The partnership will combine SBI’s distribution network with Hitachi’s artificial intelligence knowledge and other technological capabilities.
Chairman at SBI, Shri Rajnish Kumar explained: “Through this joint venture, we aim to maintain our position as the top acquirer in the merchant digital payments space by providing technologically superior and seamless services to our customers.
“We will also utilise business analytics to develop strategies to penetrate into hitherto untouched Indian towns and cities through merchant centric digital payments solutions.”
Since 2011 Hitachi has been working alongside SBI in providing deployment, technology and management services for the card and digital acceptance payment network and currently administer over 70% of the bank’s network.
The company has also been contributing to digitalise other governmental and educational services, such as “e-Governance” and “e-Education” mainly through IT services provider Hitachi MGRM Net –
established in India last April.
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.”
