Airtel Payments Bank driving adoption of Digital Payments

Airtel Payments Bank has 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.

Shashi Arora, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank, said, “We are fully committed to the Government’s vision of Digital India and financial inclusion. We are a fully digital bank and believe that these initiatives will add to the Government’s efforts to fast track India’s journey towards becoming a cashless economy.”

Starting from January 2017, Airtel Payments Bank will roll out the following initiatives across India.

Educating customers on digital payments

** There will be special emphasis on educating customers with basic/feature mobile phones to use their phones to make USSD-based payments.   

** Customers will be encouraged and incentivized to open savings accounts with Airtel Payments Bank and make convenient digital payments using their mobile phones    across a wide merchant base, in addition to earning a healthy interest rate on savings deposits.

** Airtel Payments Bank will also offer incentives in the form of surprise gifts to customers who use digital/cashless mode of payment. Every month, it will give away 100 minutes of free Airtel to Airtel mobile talk-time to 100,000 of its customers (through a lucky draw).

Building a nationwide Digital Payments Ecosystem

** Airtel Payments Bank will develop a nationwide merchant ecosystem of over 3 million partners that will include small kirana stores, small shops, restaurants, etc. These merchant partners will accept digital payments for goods and services from Airtel Payments Bank customers over mobile phones. 

No transaction charges for digital payments

**  Airtel Payments Bank will not charge any processing fee from its customers and merchants partners for digital transactions. The benefit of no added/hidden costs will encourage both merchants and customers alike to adopt cashless payments. 

** The registration process for merchants will also be completely paperless and would allow them to start accepting payments instantaneously using either an app (smartphone) or USSD (feature phone). 

Further, in order to discourage cash withdrawals from Airtel Payments Bank accounts, a minimal cash withdrawal free (~0.65% per transaction) will be levied, thereby encouraging customers to prefer digital payments for transactions. 

Airtel Payments Bank has rolled out pilot services across Rajasthan and has opened over 100,000 savings accounts in less than two weeks of commencing services. It plans to shortly extend its pilot services to the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.