Airtel Payments Bank

Overview

Airtel Payments Bank is Indian payments bank + Bharti Airtel Indian telecom parent NSE: BHARTIARTL ~70% controlling + Kotak Mahindra Bank ~10% + Bharti Enterprises + India's first Payments Bank operating under RBI Payments Bank license + ~70M+ Indian customers + ~500K+ banking points network primarily Airtel retail outlets nationwide [1, in-cro].

History

Aug 2015 — RBI grants in-principle Payments Bank licenses to 11 entities including Bharti Airtel as part of RBI's financial inclusion strategy.

Jan 12 2017 — Airtel Payments Bank launched as India's first Payments Bank distinctive Indian payments banking heritage.

2017 — Airtel Payments Bank Aadhaar-eKYC controversy + Rs 25 crore fine + Aadhaar-eKYC authorisation suspension.

2018 — Airtel Thanks app + Airtel Payments Bank integration.

Ownership & operator

Operating entity: Airtel Payments Bank Limited (Indian payments bank; Bharti Airtel + Kotak Mahindra Bank + Bharti Enterprises).

Major shareholders: Bharti Airtel Limited (NSE: BHARTIARTL + BSE: 532454; Indian telecom group; ~480M+ Indian wireless subscribers) ~70% controlling + Kotak Mahindra Bank ~10% + Bharti Enterprises.

Regulators: RBI.

Technical integration

Airtel Thanks app (iOS + Android; ~70M+ Indian customers) + Airtel Payments Bank web online + ~500K+ banking points network primarily Airtel retail outlets nationwide + Airtel Payments Bank Visa + Mastercard + RuPay cards; UPI + BharatQR + IMPS + RuPay + Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System AePS; max balance Rs 2 lakh per customer under Payments Bank framework.

Implementations & partners

Bharti Airtel parent: [[airtel-money-india]] (Airtel Money India; Bharti Airtel mobile money pre-Payments Bank evolution) + [[airtel-money-africa]] (Airtel Money Africa; Bharti Airtel Africa mobile money operations across 14 African countries; ~33M+ African customers).

Kotak Mahindra Bank minority partner: [[kotak-mahindra]] (Kotak Mahindra Bank; BSE: 500247 + NSE: KOTAKBANK; India's #4 private commercial bank by assets).

Major Indian payments bank + payments competitors: [[paytm-payments-bank]] (Paytm Payments Bank; India's #2 Payments Bank; Mar 15 2024 RBI operational shutdown for non-compliance) + [[india-post-payments-bank]] (India Post Payments Bank IPPB; Indian government India Post Payments Bank; ~600M+ India Post customers) + [[fino-payments-bank]] (Fino Payments Bank; BSE: 543386 + NSE: FINOPB; Indian payments bank) + [[jio-payments-bank]] (Jio Payments Bank; Reliance Jio + SBI JV Indian payments bank) + [[nsdl-payments-bank]] (NSDL Payments Bank; NSDL Indian depository payments bank) + [[phonepe]] (PhonePe; Walmart Flipkart subsidiary; India's largest UPI wallet by transactions) + [[google-pay-india]] (Google Pay India; India's #2 UPI wallet by transactions) + [[paytm]] (Paytm; BSE: 543396 + NSE: PAYTM; Indian super-app wallet) + [[amazon-pay-india]] (Amazon Pay India; Indian wallet by Amazon).

Regulator: RBI.

Status

Active, Indian payments bank + Bharti Airtel Indian telecom parent NSE:BHARTIARTL ~70% controlling + Kotak Mahindra Bank ~10% + India's first Payments Bank operating under RBI Payments Bank license + ~70M+ Indian customers + ~500K+ banking points network primarily Airtel retail outlets nationwide [1, 2].

Sources

• 1 Airtel Payments Bank — official
• 2 Airtel Payments Bank — Wikipedia
• in-cro In-corpus: reports/countries/IN-india.md

Source

Biography extracted from airtel-payments-bank.md. See matrix.md for standards-support matrix if present.