Airtel payments bank rolls out pilot services in Karnataka

NEW DELHI: Airtel Payments Bank Limited, the first payments bank in India to go LIVE, has extended its footprint to South India by rolling out pilot services in Karnataka. This follows its successful pilot roll out in Rajasthan, where over 100,000 customers opened savings accounts in less than two weeks of commencement of services.

Airtel Payments Bank offers basic banking services to customers by leveraging Airtel’s vast retail network and taking basic banking services to the doorstep of customers via neighborhood Airtel retailers. In Karnataka, Airtel Payments Bank is rolling out pilot services across 12,000 Airtel retail outlets, which also acts as banking points. 70 % of these banking points are in rural areas, thereby driving financial inclusion and reaching unbanked/underbanked areas.

Customers will now be able to open bank accounts at any of the designated Airtel retail outlets and enjoy a host of convenient banking services. Customers opening a savings account with Airtel Payments Bank will also get one minute of Airtel mobile talk time for every Rupee deposited. For e.g. if a customer opens an account with a deposit of Rs 500 then he/she will get 500 minutes of free talk time for calls to anywhere in India on his/her Airtel mobile number

Commenting on the launch of Airtel Payments Bank,  Government of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said, “The mobile phone has emerged as a powerful device to drive financial inclusion and advance cashless transactions in the country. Evolving financial inclusion for the citizens, Airtel Payments Bank will accelerate as a significant banking partner in taking digital banking experience to the rural citizens. I invite the citizens of Karnataka to embrace digital economy and wish that the unbanked make use of the occasion to adopt digital payments. I look forward to a successful transition to digital banking”.

Shashi Arora, MD & CEO – Airtel Payments Bank said, “We are pleased to rollout our pilot service in Karnataka and look forward to serving customers and contributing the financial inclusion vision of the two states. We have received an extremely positive response from customers in Rajasthan and would like to replicate the same in Karnataka before we rollout our services nationally.”

Airtel Payments Bank is a fully digital and paperless bank and customers can access services over their mobile phones, including all feature/basic mobile phones.

Airtel Payments Bank plans to develop a nationwide merchant ecosystem of over 3 million partners that will include small kirana stores, small shops and restaurants etc. These merchant partners will accept digital payments for goods and services from Airtel Payments Bank customers over mobile phones. Airtel Payments Bank will not charge any processing fee from merchants and this facility would be totally free for the customers as well as the merchants. This is a step towards making India a cashless economy with more and more digital transactions at merchant locations.

Airtel Payments Bank also announced a range of proactive initiatives to drive the adoption of digital/cashless payments and contribute to the Government of India’s efforts to accelerate India’s transition to a cashless economy.

Airtel Payments Bank’s services can be accessed by Airtel customers on their mobile phones through the Airtel Money app, through USSD by dialing *400#; or via a simple Voice Response Mechanism (IVR) by dialing 400. Both the USSD & IVR options are available in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English language and work on simple feature phones as well. Non Airtel customers can access Airtel Payments Bank’s services by dialing 8800688006 or by using the Airtel Money app. Customers can also visit any designated Airtel retail outlet to access services (and not just the outlet where they have opened the account).

On April 11, 2016, Airtel Payments Bank became the first entity in India to receive a payments bank license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It intends to bring banking services to the doorstep of every citizen of the country. It plans to leverage Bharti Airtel’s extensive national distribution network of over 1.5 million retail outlets, with deep penetration in rural areas.

Airtel Payments Bank’s product portfolio includes payment banking services and semi-closed mobile wallet services (Airtel Money).