Airtel becomes first payments bank to go live

JAIPUR: Airtel Payments Bank Ltd, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday said that it has rolled out a pilot of its banking services in Rajasthan aimed at testing systems and processes ahead of a full scale pan-India launch.


With this, Airtel Bank becomes the first payments bank in the country to go live. Customers in towns and villages across Rajasthan will now be able to open bank accounts at Airtel retail outlets, which will also act as Airtel banking points and offer a range of basic banking services. Airtel will commence the pilot with banking points at 10,000 of its retail outlets.


"We will have a network of 1 lakh merchants (sellers and shops) by the end of this fiscal year across Rajasthan who will accept digital payments from Airtel Bank, offering customers the convenience of cashless purchase of goods and services through their mobile phones in a quick and secure manner," said Shashi Arora, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank.

Airtel Bank is a fully digital and paperless bank. Airtel Banking points will offer bank account opening services and cash deposit & withdrawal facilities.


The telecom major's customers can open accounts using Aadhaar based e-KYC and their Airtel mobile number will be the bank account number. The account holders can keep maximum of Rs 1 lakh in their accounts which will fetch an annual interest rate of 7.25 % on deposits, while the company will charge 0.65% fees on withdrawals.

Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje said, "This initiative, perfectly in sync with the Prime Minister's vision for financial inclusion and Digital India, will be a boon to residents in far-flung areas who are yet to have access to formal banking."

Arora said the pilot project will take 4-6 weeks and after that the company will make the services available across the country. Airtel has about 25 crore customers in the country.