Hitachi Payments is entering a joint venture with the State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank, to establish a digital payments platform
The collaboration sees Hitachi Payments, the wholly-owned Indian payments subsidiary of 108-year old Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, join the State Bank of India (SBI) in developing a sweeping digital payments platform with applications in point-of-sale solutions (POS) and mass transit roadways in the country.
Hitachi Payments is investing in SBI Payment Services for a 26% stake, a press release confirmed, building on its relationship with the state-owned bank as its technology provider for card and digital payments since 2011.
Specifically, the tech giant is using its expertise in big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to introduce “Lumada”, its IoT platform to the Indian payments sector.
“Hitachi will provide wide range of services contributing to “Digital India” by creating innovative solutions with ‘Lumada’,” Hitachi said. “With this joint-venture, Hitachi will accelerate digitalization of financial services in India by linking up digital payments platform to state-of-the-art digital technologies of “Lumada”, and also will provide solutions for mass transit sector and e-commerce businesses.”
108-Year Old Japanese Conglomerate Hitachi Tests Blockchain for Retail Settlements https://t.co/GPr88y76L1
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Hitachi Payments notably manages over 55,000 ATMs and 850,000 POS devices in India. With over 420 million customers, the State Bank of India also has over 6 million POS terminals in the country. The bank sees over 70% of its current network managed by Hitachi Payments.
Hitachi president and CEO Toshiaki Higashihara added:
“By establishing the joint venture with SBI, Hitachi 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.”
State Bank of India, Mumbai image from Shutterstock.
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