SBI, Hitachi Payments form JV for digital payment platform

Mumbai, Oct. 29 (IANS): The State Bank of India (SBI) and Hitachi Payment Services (Hitachi Payments) on Monday entered into a joint venture (JV) to start a digital payment platform in India. The SBI would have a majority stake in the partnership, a joint statement said. "The joint venture will provide comprehensive suite of payment options to customers and merchants focussing on areas such as rollout of a nationwide card acceptance infrastructure, quick response (QR) code acceptance, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), mass transit sector and e-commerce businesses," it said. It also noted that the partnership is subject to regulatory approvals. Speaking about the JV, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said: "At 2,500 PoS (Points of Sale) per million people, the penetration of payment acceptance infrastructure is still low. With this JV, we aim to grow the payment landscape by providing a frictionless modern digital payment platform to our customers."