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ICICI Bank Ltd. intends to create a point-of-sale business joint venture with a yet undetermined partner, a spokesperson from the India-based bank confirms to CardLine Global. "The matter is still in the discussion stage," the spokesperson says. "We are exploring the idea as it is a noncore business." The bank has short-listed U.S.-based companies Visa Inc., Total System Services Inc. and Global Payment Inc. for the joint venture, and ICICI will make a decision in roughly one month, according to local newspaper Mint. The chosen partner would hold an 80% stake in the company, and the bank values the POS business at 500 crore rupees (US$100 million 73.8 million euros), according to Mint. ICICI refused to confirm any of the reported details about the potential joint venture. ICICI Bank, which has a network of 1,442 branches and about 4,721 ATMs in India and has a presence in 18 countries, recently joined with Visa to issue debit cards in the U.S. (CardLine Global, 13 May).
