Swipe machine numbers up by 10 lakh post demonetisation

Post demonetisation, there has been a sharp increase in the number of shops accepting card payments. Figuratively, the number of swipe machines has gone up from 15 lakh to 25 lakh.

The State Bank of India (SBI) has said the current level of digitisation hints the requirement of currency notes in the Indian economy will come down by over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Before demonetisation, there were 15.1 lakh credit card swipe machines, a number that jumped to 22.2 lakh in February 2017, and going by the data of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has crossed 25 lakh since then.

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Half of the additions have come from big banking institutions like SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC, Corporation Bank and ICICI Bank.

Indian banks have now decided to add another 30 lakh shops to the electronic payment network by September 2018, which would include 10 lakh additional Point of Sale (PoS) machines, 10 lakh Aadhaar-enabled payment facilities and another 10 lakh outlets that would accept payments via QR codes.

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(Image source New Indian Express)