Digital India in the making: SBI to offer credit cards on FD

In a major move towards a cashless economy, country’s largest commercial bank’s arm is planning to come out with credit cards for anyone who has a Rs 25000 fixed deposit in any bank. There would be no charges associated with the card and it will be available irrespective of the credit history of an individual holder.

This massive step from the institution comes amidst the currency demonetisation move by the government and many initiatives being announced by both the central government and RBI.

The demonetisation drive by the government has led to banks, both public and private, seeing a huge jump in digital transactions. SBI has seen an almost five times jump in the number of Point of Sale (PoS) machines being installed at merchant outlets daily, indicating that card adoption rate is gathering pace.

According to data from the RBI, the average debit card and credit card transaction value on POS machines for the top four banks has risen by 31 per cent in December to Rs 1540 crore daily.

SBI with every passing month is becoming more aggressive, with the card business overtaking the likes of ICICI Bank to become the second biggest card issuer in the country after HDFC Bank.

In another development, GE Capital is planning to sell its stake in the joint venture with SBI to other global buyout firms.