Here's all you want to know about Airtel Payments Bank

India’s first payments bank by Airtel has commenced national operations in all 29 States of India from today. Union Minster of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley formally launched Airtel Payments Bank’s national operations in New Delhi yesterday.

Airtel Payments Bank, a fully digital and paperless bank, aims to take basic banking services to the doorstep of every Indian by leveraging Airtel’s vast retail network.

Starting today, over 250,000 Airtel retail stores across the country 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.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises said, “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.”

“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,” added he.

Below are the features and the facilities offered by Airtel Payments Bank:

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.

Airtel will educate users on the benefits of digital payments, with special emphasis on customers with basic/feature mobile phones to make them use their phones to make USSD based payments. USSD and IVR will be available in 12 languages for non-smartphone customers.

Savings account: The customer’s mobile number will be his/her bank account number. Easy deposit and withdrawal facility across a wide network of Airtel retail outlets.

Airtel will also offer one minute of Airtel mobile talktime for every Rupee deposited at the time of opening a savings account.

Interest rate: 7.25 % p.a. on deposits in savings accounts.

No transaction charges for digital payments: Airtel Payments Bank will not charge any processing fee from its customers and merchants partners for digital transactions, thereby encouraging them to adopt cashless payments.

Money  can be transferred to any bank account in India. Airtel will offer free money transfer from Airtel-to-Airtel numbers within Airtel Payments Bank.

Airtel Payments Bank App and online Debit Card: Airtel Payments Bank also rolled out its app for Android and iOS. The app can be accessed through MyAirtel app. Customers simply need to install MyAirtel app on their smartphone for a seamless access to Airtel Payments Bank services. In addition, customers would also get access to a MasterCard powered online card, which can be used to make payments across all online merchants accepting MasterCard.

Nationwide Digital Payments Ecosystem: Airtel Payments Bank will develop a nationwide merchant ecosystem of over five million partners including small kirana stores, grocers, pharmacies, restaurants, etc. These merchant partners will accept digital payments from Airtel Payments Bank customers over mobile phones. Airtel Payments Bank has launched a Merchant App for digital onboarding of partners. Anyone looking to become a merchant partner can download this app from Google Playstore for free and start accepting digital payments instantaneously.