Hitachi wants tie-up with India Post for Payment Bank

Japan’s Hitachi is keen to partner with the postal department for payments bank solutions, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The president and CEO of the company’s IT systems, Yutaka Saito, on Wednesday called on the minister and discussed the possibility of Hitachi offering its banking solutions to India Post, which has got a an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for starting a payments bank.

“I have heard them, they have already met the postal department people. I have asked them to make elaborate presentations. They have come with the idea of a revenue-sharing model to install the banking solutions in all the post offices in India. We will consider it,” Prasad said after the meeting.

“I have asked the postal department to work out the details,” he added.

As per RBI guidelines, payments banks would offer a limited range of products such as demand deposits and remittances. They will not be allowed to undertake lending activities and will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer.

They will be allowed to issue ATM or debit cards as also other prepaid payment instruments, but not credit cards.

Hitachi’s payment services offer banking solutions related to ATM, point of sale, cash and deposit machines and card management solutions to all leading banks of the country.

“They are very keen to partner with postal department for payments bank solutions in the vast network of India’s postal operations across the country and in rural areas,” Prasad said.

The minister further said what is important is the technical upgrading of rural post offices to make the payments bank a success.

“I have assured them that with Digital India opening up in India in a big way, there is enough scope for products, marketing, consumer base and above all innovation,” he added.

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