Reliance Industries group firm Reliance Payment Services is among the companies shortlisted by public sector banks to manage and deploy at least 2 million Point-of-sale (POS) debit and credit card swipe machines across merchants in smaller towns over the next two years, reports The Times of India. The report states that around 28 public sector banks will be outsourcing their swipe machines to four service providers and IDBI Bank will be conducting a reverse auction process to award these contracts. However, there is currently no specific information on which banks are participating in this initiative. Interestingly, Sequoia Capital-backed Prizm Payments is also apparently in the fray to manage these swipe machines along with other contenders like the Financial Software & Systems (FSS) and AGS Infotech, as indicated by the report. Remember that the Finance Ministry had issued a circular to all Public sector banks (PSB) to promote online payments last June. It had also directed them to make payments to their customers, vendors, and suppliers electronically instead of paying via cheques from July 1, 2012. RIL 4G strategy: It will be quite interesting to see how this PoS deployment will fit into RIL's 4G plans, when the company rolls out 4G service in India. Remember that RIL was planning to offer financial services, including a payment gateway in May 2011 and was in talks with the US based Banking & financial products company American Express for this initiative, however there is no further information on this deal. While the company hasn't revealed any official timeline for the 4G rollout yet, reports suggest that RIL…
