India’s largest Bank, the State Bank of India just a while ago launched SBI Gold International Debit Card in association with VISA international.
Mr. O.P.Bhatt, Chairman of SBI also announced the banks intention to install 1 Million Credit/Debit Card Point of Sale Terminals at retail establishments throughout the country. He said – “It will act as a source of revenue for the bank. However, the customer will not be charged for the same.”
How does SBI make money installing POS systems ?
SBI pays the Merchant or retail establishments on behalf of the Credit card issuing bank. SBI will discount the merchant/retail bill by a very small percentage and thus make money in the process. It is only because of this fact that large retailers like Reliance want to establish their own Financial Network and tie-up with the bank to save on such transactions once their retail roll out is complete.
SBI, which currently has 7,200 ATMS plans to take the number to 25,000 by 2010.