SBI country’s first bank to set up payment gateway

E-commerce in India is set to get a big boost with the country's largest lender State Bank of India setting up its payment gateway - SBI ePay — with the objective of enrolling government entities and municipal corporations as well as small traders in the online marketplace.


SBI is the first bank in India to start its own online aggregator services. Besides the payment gateway, which will enable merchants accept payment by net banking, credit card, debit card and mobile banking, SBIePay is also in the process rolling out an electronic bill presentment and payment platform (EBPP) and IVRS phone payment. EBPP enables a payment provider to generate the bill and receive payments while IVRS is an interactive voice response system that enables merchant receive credit card payments over the phone.

"We will be brining in new merchant categories with a special focus on government merchants such as, central, state departments and municipal corporations," said a senior official with the bank's payment services vertical. He added that the payment gateway service will come with a dashboard site which will provide analytics for banks and merchants to help them boost their business.

SBI is a relative late entrant in the payment gateway space. Existing players include: Times of Money, IndiaIdeas (BillDesk), CCAvenues, TechProcess Solutions, E-Billing Solutions (EBS), Atom Technologies, and new aggregators like PayU, Citrus, Emvantage.

Source: Economic Times