Bharti Airtel has expanded its payment bank operations to 200-plus villages across Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, reducing its dependence on cash transactions as part of an ambitious plan to roll out financial services to millions outside the banking system.Going forward, the Sunil Mittal-led telco plans to expand its payments banking services to “5,000 villages across the country to help them similarly go cashless“, a top company executive told ET.
Airtel Payments Bank is a unit of Bharti Airtel, in which the country's largest telecom company owns 80% while the balance shares are held by Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Airtel's payments banking services would help cashless purchases of farm produce, goods and services through mobile phones. “With this initiative, we are taking banking services to the unbanked and also enabling them to be less reliant on cash,“ Shashi Arora, managing director of Airtel Payments Bank, told ET.
Each of the 200-plus villages, which previously had zero access to formal banking services, now has at least one Airtel Payments Bank outlet offering basic banking services, including cash deposits, withdrawals and seamless money transfer facilities, the first executive cited said.
Most households in these villages also have an Airtel Payments Bank savings account and can, accordingly, engage in banking transactions with plain feature phones. They can earn an annual interest of 7.25% and a Rs 1 lakh personal accident insurance cover.
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