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Airtel Payments Bank is a public limited company with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. The company is a subsidiary of
Bharti Airtel. It is the first company in India to receive a
payments bank license from the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and it became the first live
payments bank in the country.
[2] On April 11, 2016 the Reserve Bank of India issued the license under Section 22 (1) of Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to Airtel Payments Bank.
[3] Airtel Payments Bank is a joint venture between
Bharti Airtel Ltd. and
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.. Kotak Mahindra Bank holds 19.9% stake in the Airtel Payments Bank.
History[edit]
In 2015, eleven companies received In-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India to set up payments bank under the guidelines for Licensing of Payments Bank. Airtel was one of them, and it launched Airtel Payments Bank in September 2016. Airtel's first payments bank went live with its pilot project in
Rajasthan in November 2016.
UPI Digital Payments[edit]
In September 2017, Airtel Payments Bank launched
UPI enabled digital payments to facilitate secure digital payments for its customers. Customers need to link their bank accounts on
BHIM before they can make UPI payments. For UPI-based payments and transfers, customers are not required to furnish their bank details to enable transactions.
[4]
AirTel Money[edit]
AirTel Money is a
digital wallet by AirTel Payment Bank that allows users to make payments using "My Airtel app" or
USSD.
Legal challenges[edit]
The
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) suspended
Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payment Bank's licence for eKYC of
Aadhar on 16 December 2017, following complaints from customers that their accounts were being opened without their consent. Some even received their LPG subsidies in their Airtel Payment Bank accounts.
[7] However, on July 12, 2018, Airtel Payments Bank received requisite approvals from the Reserved Bank of India and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to resume on-boarding new customers using of Aadhaar based e-KYC.
[8]
Investment[edit]
The bank's capital at its establishment was
₹3,000 crore ($441 million). Airtel Payments Bank reported deposits of Rs 68.33 crore at the end of the financial year ended 31 March 2017, which was its first year of operation.
[9][10]