Credit Cards payments up by 22 percent

In mean time, peoples pay more money with their credit cards. Payment through credit cards up by 22 % in last financial year. But the active credit card goes down by 2.7%.
Debit cards transactions increased by 46.5 % because of the increase in ATMs chains.
Most of the banks issues ATM for their saving account holders for withdrawing easy cash from ATM. Now active debit card goes to 22.8 cr while the credit card was just 1.8 cr.
SBI stood at no.1 with largest depositor base in India, SBI issued 8 cr debit cards, No.2 is ICICI Bank with 1.65 cr, 3rd is HDFC 1.31 cr, In credit card bazaar, HDFC at No.1 with over .5 crore active credit cards followed by ICICI Bank, SBI, Citibank and standard chartered. Calculate your emi with EMI Calculator
RBI data shows, the value of transactions at domestic ATMs using debit cards to be Rs 9,48,346 crore across 398.40 crore transactions in the March 2010-February 2011 period, while domestic ATM-based credit card transactions were worth just Rs 934 crore across 0.19 crore transactions.

Private cabs to accept cards payments soon

You need not bother about carrying cash the next time you take a private cab in the city. Around 3,000 cabs will offer payment by credit card by June-end.
With Easy Cabs and City Cool Cabs having started the credit card facility recently, other operators like Meru, Mega Cabs and Gold Cabs plan to offer this payment option to passengers soon. While Meru is in the process of importing hightech swiping machines from Italy, Gold Cabs will offer card payment facility from next week onwards. Mega Cabs will launch the service from June 10.
Meru CEO Rajesh Puri said, “Mumbai is a commercial hub and there is a daily influx of business travellers from across the world. It becomes difficult for passengers to pay in Indian currency. Also, the card payment option would be easier, convenient and faster.” Meru already offers the card payment option in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Mega Cabs vice-president Vinod Mishra confirmed that there was a huge demand from passengers for the credit card payment facility. “ While giving us feedback, passengers who hire vehicles for official purposes request for the credit card payment option. We have decided to introduce the facility in all our vehicles ,” he said.
Gold Cabs CEO Arun Sabnis said that installing a card swiping machine was an expensive affair. “But due to public demand, we will instal swiping machines in each vehicle,’’ he said.
Easy Cabs officials claim they are the pioneers in introducing the credit card system in Mumbai cabs.
Vijay Agunde, proprietor of City Cool Cabs, said he offers credit card facility only on request, installing the machine on a temporary basis. “The machine costs Rs 25,000 and there is a possibility of drivers misplacing it. I cannot take this risk,” he stated. Star Taxis also plans to introduce the facility in near future.
“Every private taxi operator will have to switch to card payment soon. These days, you will find a passenger carrying not one but at least three to four credit cards in his/her wallet,’’ Sabnis added.

ICICI Bank sells terminals of card payment

ICICI Bank has concluded the sale of its network of electronic point of sales (PoS) terminals that accept Credit Card and Debit Card payments to First Data Corporation (FDC). The bank has hived off its network of over 1.5 lakh electronic swipe machines to a separate company — ICICI Merchant Services. First Data has bought an 81% stake in the company which has been valued at a little over $90 million.
When contacted, ICICI Bank refused to comment on the transaction. The bank has, however, communicated to merchants having ICICI Bank terminals that the PoS network has been transferred to ICICI Merchant Services. “First Data, along with partner banks, is keen to proliferate payment transactions not just at top retailers but also through small cities or towns in India,” said Amrish Rau, country manager, First Data Corporation.
Referring to the transaction with ICICI Bank, Mr Rau said an announcement would be made in due course. Mr Rau, who represents First Data in the country, is likely to head the new payments company. First Data is a US-based company that has been created after banks farmed out their back office processing systems into a separate company. FDC is presently owned by private equity giant KKR.
The Reserve Bank of India has already given clearance for the deal. According to banking sources, the deal value has gone up after RBI said that merchant establishments, including grocery stores and supermarkets, could swipe customer cards and offer them cash.
In addition to unlocking value, ICICI Bank expects that the specialised company will bring down transactions costs and also grow the payment network more efficiently. This is the first time that an Indian bank has hived off its PoS terminal network.
So far it has been foreign banks that have outsourced these functions but their network is of much smaller scale.
ICICI Merchant Services will earn a fee every time a credit cards or debit cards transaction is processed through the point of sale network. The fee is usually borne by the merchant and a large part of it goes to the card issuing bank. This is in lieu of the credit that the issuing bank extends to the cardholder until the end of the billing cycle. A smaller part of the commission goes to the bank owning the PoS terminal (acquiring bank) and smaller portion to the payment company — Mastercard or Visa.
Incidentally, State Bank of India has for some time expressed its intention to set up a network of half a million point of sales terminals. To build this network the bank had earlier sought partners. However, the project was shelved as the bank decided to take a more holistic approach of its payments business.