Airtel Payments Bank, the first payments bank in India to go LIVE, today said it has opened over one lakh (100,000) savings accounts in less than two weeks of rolling out its pilot services in Rajasthan. Close to 70% of the over one lakh accounts opened with Airtel Payments Bank are in rural areas, highlighting the massive scope for serving customers, particularly in unbanked and underbanked pockets.

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 neighbourhood Airtel retailers. In Rajasthan, Airtel Payments Bank is rolling out pilot services across 10,000 Airtel retail outlets, which also acts as banking points. Two-thirds of these banking points across Rajasthan are in rural areas.

Shashi Arora, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank said, “The customer response has been extremely positive and validates our retail based model that will also allow us to take our banking services closer to the customer. We have been able to deliver a smooth digital banking experience to customers and our systems have worked flawlessly to manage the quick scale up. We are also getting a good response from merchants and have further accelerated their onboarding.”

Airtel Payments Bank plans to have a network of 100,000 merchants (shops) across Rajasthan by the end of the year. All these merchants will accept digital payments via Airtel Payments Bank using a mobile phone. Airtel Payments Bank will not charge any processing fee from merchants for this facility.

Airtel Payments Bank is a fully digital and paperless bank. All its Banking points will offer bank account opening services and cash deposit & withdrawal facilities.

· 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

· One minute of Airtel mobile talk time for every Rupee deposited while opening an account

· Customer’s Airtel mobile number will be his/her bank account number

· Interest rate of 7.25 % p.a. on deposits in savings accounts, the highest in India

· Money transfer to any bank account in India (Free money transfer from Airtel to Airtel numbers within Airtel Payments Bank)

· Personal Accidental Insurance of Rs. 1 Lac with every Savings Account

· Easy deposit and withdrawal facility across a wide network of Airtel retail outlets

Also read: Airtel customers opening account in Airtel Payments Bank to get free Airtel to Airtel talk time for 30 days

Airtel Payments Bank’s services can be accessed by Airtel customers on their mobile phones by dialing 8800688006. Customers can also visit any designated Airtel retail outlet to access services (and not just the outlet where they have opened the account).