Hyderabad: The country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday announced a partnership with Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) to offer digital payment and financing solutions for small store owners and distributors of the company’s products. The partnership will digitally empower HUL’s retailers and distributors through SBI’s customized online solutions, the joint statement said.
Through this, SBI will provide a paperless instant overdraft facility to retailers to enable payments to distributors. It will also provide UPI-based solutions to HUL’s retailers to assist with cashless payments. The move that was announced jointly by HUL and SBI on Thursday will begin as a pilot starting in the cities of Bengaluru and Mumbai.
“To ensure customers get the option of digital payments in smaller towns as well, the bank will install SBI Point of Sale machines at multiple HUL touchpoints across the country. Additionally, SBI will provide UPI based solutions to HUL retailers for instant cashless payments to their dealers from HUL’s retailer application “Shikhar”,” HUL said in its statement.
The partnership will enable adoption of digital payments among HUL retailers, small entrepreneurs in semi urban and rural areas, the company said.
“SBI’s 22000 branches and 58000 ATMs spread out across the country complement HUL’s deep rural reach. The partnership between the two companies will catalyze the adoption of digital (UPI) payments among small scale entrepreneurs and retailers in the farthest corners of the country and pave way for a truly transformative leg of the digital India journey,” the HUL’s statement read.