Airtel Payments Bank, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited was first rolled out across 10,000 Airtel retail outlets in Rajasthan, during the pilot phase in November last year. Today, at an event in New Delhi, the Airtel Payments Bank is officially launched across all 29 states in the country.
According to the company, there are over 250,000 Airtel retail stores in the country, that will also function as banking points, and customers will be able to open savings accounts, deposit and withdraw cash across any of these banking points. Airtel Payments Bank has become the first payments bank in the country to go live.
Airtel Payments Bank offer a range of services, which are as follows:
- Digital Banking: Quick and paperless account opening using Aadhaar based e-KYC. This requires no documents at all, only the customer’s Aadhaar number is needed.
- Customer’s Airtel mobile number will be his/her bank account number.
- Interest rate of 7.25 % p.a. on deposits in savings accounts.
- Money transfer to any bank account in India (Free money transfer from Airtel to Airtel numbers within Airtel Bank).
- Personal Accidental Insurance of Rs 1 Lac with every Savings Account.
- Deposit and withdrawal facility across a network of Airtel retail outlets.
- Airtel Bank does not offer ATM/Debit Card facility, at present. Customers can deposit or withdraw cash at any of the designated Airtel retail outlets.
Airtel 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 IVR by dialing 400. Both the USSD & IVR options are available in Hindi and English language and work on simple feature phones as well. Non-Airtel customers can also access Airtel Bank’s services by dialing 8800688006.
Bharti has always undertaken transformational initiatives that have the potential to make a positive impact on the society and contribute to the development of India. Airtel has been at the forefront of India’s digital transformation and has empowered over 260 million customers with affordable telecom services. With Airtel Payments Bank, we are starting another important chapter in our journey, with the potential to truly transform lives and contribute to financial inclusion in the country. Just like mobile telephony leapfrogged traditional telecom networks to take affordable telecom services deep into the country, Airtel Payments Bank aims to take digital banking services to the unbanked over their mobile phones in a quick and efficient manner. Millions of Indians in rural areas will get their first formal banking experience with Airtel Payments Bank.
We are fully committed to the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s call to build a Digital India and lay a strong foundation for India’s transition to a cashless economy. Airtel Payments Bank will invest towards building a vast digital payments ecosystem with millions of merchants, and allow customers to make convenient cashless payments for good and services with their mobile phones.
– Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder & Chairman, Bharti Enterprises.
Airtel Payments Bank is not limited to Airtel customers only, as anyone with an Aadhaar card can open a Savings Account with Airtel Bank. The company has also launched Airtel Payments Bank app that can be accessed through MyAirtel app and Online Card in collaboration with MasterCard for convenient banking and cashless payments.