State Bank of India has launched its online electronic payments aggregator service – ‘SBIePay’ – at its corporate centre. Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya inaugurated the facility. Bhattacharya said the possibility for other bank customers using the facility would ensure more e-commerce activity and also help banks increase usage of alternate channels. The payment intermediary, which would act as an aggregator to facilitate payments to multiple merchants from different bank accounts, would make SBI the first lender in the country to have a payment aggregator of its own in a space dominated by private players like Billdesk and CCAvenues. SBIePay plans to target newer spaces, especially government bodies’ payments. In the next three years, it aims to become a dominant player in the aggregator space by being a one-stop solution for processing all online payment modes. It would provide business information and analytics to merchants as well as banks for all transactions as an add on feature and is already in talks with 40 banks for tie-ups. Between 2008 and 2012, electronic payments grew at 32% per annum and have touched Rs 47,349 crore and online travel bookings as well as online retail sales are the two major segments. At present, debit card and Internet banking form around 45% of transactions, while 43% come from credit cards. The government space, which the SBI targets, currently does not have any online mode of payment at present and operates through authorised bank branches, collection centres and drafts. A live transaction through SBIePay Services was demonstrated in the presence of A. Krishna Kumar, MD & GE (NB). S.K. Mishra, DMD (CS&NB), J.N. Misra, DMD & CDO, A.S. Thimmaiah, CGM (CS&NB), K. Ramachandran, CGM (CTO) and other senior officials of the bank were present on the occasion.
