Axis Bank's no-frill accounts on Airtel Money

MUMBAI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank today announced a partnership to provide banking and payment services to people in India. Infosys is the technology partner for Bharti Airtel's mobile payment service.

Under the partnership, Axis Bank's no-frills savings account of Axis Bank will be opened for customers on the Airtel Money platform. The 'Airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank' offers customers banking transactions including cash deposit, money transfer and withdrawal.

Currently, this service will be available in Delhi and Mumbai on the sending side and Bihar and East UP on the receiving side. Gradually other banking products and services like micro-Recurring Deposits, micro-Fixed Deposits, small loans and micro-insurance products will also be provided through this platform.

''Following the recent pan India launch of Airtel money, we are today excited to collaborate with Axis Bank to further strengthen our m-commerce proposition for customers. According to estimates, nearly 43 per cent of our country's population does not have bank accounts and continues to rely on cash for majority of transactions as well as payments,'' said Sanjay Kapoor, Bharti Airtel's CEO - India and South Asia.

''The all new ‘Airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ acts as a no-frills bank account that comes with remittance capabilities which empower customers to send money, withdraw cash from the nearby designated Airtel money outlets, keep money safe and even enjoy interest on savings through their mobile device,” added Kapoor.

Airtel has distribution network spread over 1.5 million outlets and company aims to leverage it for driving financial inclusion in India through the mobile platform.

"We are delighted to partner with Airtel for strengthening our financial inclusion initiative. Our alliance with Airtel will help the bank to reach out to excluded segments of our population, both in rural and urban centres, with reasonably priced banking and financial services," said Shikha Sharma, Axis Bank's managing director and CEO.

IT giant Infosys will use its technology solutions such as WalletEdge, Finacle Digital Commerce as well as back-end IT support for the mobile payment service. “Out of 7 billion people globally only 2 billion has access to traditional banking. Just the way ATM has changed the banking industry, the mobile banking and payment will revolutionize the future of banking industry,” said V Balakrishnan, Infosys' CFO.