Airtel Payments Bank rolls out pilot services in AP and Telangana

Airtel Payments Bank, the first payments bank in India to go live has extended its footprint to South India by rolling out pilot services in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana. 

Airtel has done a 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 Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Airtel Payments Bank is rolling out pilot services across 8,000 Airtel retail outlets in Andhra Pradesh and 7,000 outlets in Telangana, which also acts as banking points. 70  per cent 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 

Shashi Arora, MD & CEO – Airtel Payments Bank said, “We are pleased to rollout our pilot services in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana 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 AP and Telangana 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.