The number of point of sale (PoS) machines increased to 5.81 million in February 2021, up 14% from 5.1 million reported in the same month last year, according to Reserve Bank of India data.
On a monthly basis, the number of PoS machines went down by 4% from 6.03 million. It’s worth noting that RBI data only shows machine statistics from banks and does not include the number of devices from third-party players like MSwipe, Pinelabs or Ezetap among others.
While there were around 1.5 million PoS machines prior to demonetisation, as of February 2021 there were 5.81 million PoS machines.
Concentration of PoS Machines
Deployment and operations of PoS machines are still concentrated between a few banks. RBL Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank accounted for almost 78% of all terminals in the country as of February 2021. RBL Bank has 1.7 million (1,711,109) machines, which is the highest among the top five banks.
In terms of net additions, the number of PoS machines declined by 0.21 million (212,520) in February 2021. In the previous month (January 2021), the number of PoS machines had increased by 0.24 million (242,743). Net additions to PoS machines has been unimpressive from last financial year, as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in nationwide lockdown since March-end.
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