FM Arun Jaitley to launch Airtel Payments Bank

Airtel Payments Bank is set to bring a revolution of sorts in the Indian banking industry by becoming the country’s first payment bank to be launched on Thursday.

Airtel Payments Bank is a subsidiary of the country’s leading mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel. It will be launched in the presence of Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and Bharti Group chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.

In November 2016, Airtel was the first bank to start payment bank services in the country. The pilotroll-out in Rajasthan saw over one lakh customers opening savings accounts in less than two weeks of the commencement of services.

In December, Airtel extended its market presence to south India by rolling out pilot services in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The launch in Delhi is aimed at spreading services in the nearby states of Delhi such as UP and Haryana, eventually.

In 2015, a total of 11 companies had received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to offer payments bank services out of which three have surrendered their licenses i.e. Chalomandalam Distribution Services, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Tech Mahindra.

On January 3, Paytm received final approval of the RBI to formally launch its payments bank and it expects to start operations by the next month.

Idea Cellular, India Post Payment Bank, FINO PayTech, Vodafone India, Reliance Industries, National Security Depository are all in the race to commence their payment banking soon.