SBI becomes India’s top merchant acquiring bank

The Dollar Business Bureau

India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has now become the top merchant acquiring bank in the country. The bank has installed 3.07 lakh point-of-sale (PoS) terminals at over 3,800 centres as of April 30, 2016.

India’s largest bank had installed 2.96 lakh point-of-sale (PoS) terminals as of February this year.

"Being 'Banker to Every Indian', we are committed to promoting electronic payments in all parts of the country and provide strong push for achieving the goal of less-cash economy envisaged by the government," SBI said in a statement on Monday.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, SBI is closely followed by HDFC Bank with 2.81 lakh, Axis Bank with 2.58 lakh and ICICI Bank  with 2 lakh PoS) terminals.

These four major banks together account for over three-fourths of the total 13.63 lakh PoS terminals installed across the country.

SBI has deployed 44% PoS terminals in metros, 30% in urban areas, 18% in semi-urban regions and 8% in rural areas.

During 2015-16, SBI alone established over 1 lakh PoS terminals, thereby registering almost 40% of the acquiring industry growth in terms of number of terminals. More than 30,000 of these PoS terminals were contactless terminals.

In 2016-17, the bank looks to add another one lakh PoS terminal, as it plans to enhance card acceptance infrastructure in the country, particularly in tier-3 and below centres.