A new partnership that promises to take the crypto industry by storm has been announced at the start of this week, one that will serve the digital payments field as a major blockchain-based solution.
A tech giant company with worldwide reach, Hitachi, will delegate to the Hitachi Payments section the task of establishing a nationwide digital payments ecosystem that can cover the entire Indian market. To achieve that, the firm has announced a partnership with the most prominent government-owned financial services provider in the country, the State Bank of India (SBI.)
Complying with a More “Digital India”
The announcement of the pact was made public by Hitachi via a press release on October 29th, as the government’s “Digital India” campaign gets underway. Hitachi Payments will help the SBI with the “Lumada” technology, which is a IoT (Internet of Things) platform that was applied to power the supply chain management of Mizuho, a Japanese financial group, last year. “Lumada” makes use of the Proof of Concept (PoC) system.
Executives of both companies have expressed their desire to enhance the rythm of the digitalization process that India is currently enduring. To do that, Lumada and other financial services or products are needed as people within the industry continue to look for expansion. The two businesses have been working together – Hitachi Payments offers its services to power SBI’s digital payment acceptance system – since 2011.
Details of the Deal
As per the terms of the deal, Hitachi Payments will make an investment of a little over 25% in SBI Payments, a subsidiary company of the State Bank of India. SBI Payments is recognized as the most prominent merchant acquirer when it comes to [POS] terminals in India.
The SBI has been working on establishing a blockchain model for quite some time now. The financial institution started developing a blockchain solution to successfully manage KYC (know your customer) protocols nearly a year ago, in November. The firm also co-founded BankChain, the blockchain for banking research consortium.
As for Hitachi, they have been looking for partnerships in the blockchain field with the intention of keeping up with recent times. In the summer, the firm established an alliance with KDDI, a prominent telecommunication company, with the goal of testing a retail coupon settlement system. In addition, the project would bundle biometrics with Hitachi’s Hyperledger Fabric-powered blockchain system. Hitachi’s partnership with Tech Bureau is also noteworthy because it will allow the former to implement “PointInfinity”, a NEM platform that functions on the point management system for merchants that Hitachi implements.
The POS software for loyalty programs is being widely used in Japan, surpassing 150 million members in total.
A Little Bit More about Hitachi Payments
Hitachi is a multinational conglomerate that focuses on the technology department. It manages several fully-owned subsidiaries, one of them being Hitachi Payments. The latter is in charge of providing the market with technology-led payment solutions for financial institutions.
Hitachi Payments has more than 55,000 ATMd in India and, according to reports, it also suspasses 850,000 point of sale (POS) devices (including mobile POS) currently under management in the nation.
A Little Bit More about the State Bank of India
The most influential financial institution in a country that have shown accelerated growth, the State Bank of India is owned and managed by the government. It holds a 23% market share when it comes to assets in India, a high enough number to be considered the largest commercial bank in the nation.
The SBI is also responsible for 25% of the total deposits and loan market in India. More than 420 million customers are attended, with over 6, 00,000 POS terminals.
By Andres Chavez
