Airtel Payments Bank is swiftly expanding its footprint in West Bengal to provide banking services to unbanked villages in remote locations and to provide financial inclusion in the state.
A large amount of the residents of unbanked villages had no bank account or had to visit a long distance to catch up with the immediate bank branch of the town. To procure financial services to rural areas Airtel Payments Bank has authorized to enhance its capacity in the eastern areas of West Bengal.
Airtel payments bank has a network of more than 30,000 neighborhood banking points spread across West Bengal, and they are planning to enlarge its banking points in West Bengal by 50 percent by March 2021. Now more than 12,500 non-banked villages in the state have access to conventional banking services through Airtel Payments Bank. The customers can approach the bank at any time.
Around two million clients in the unbanked villages currently have a savings account with the bank. Across these banking points, clients can also access a wide range of financial services like Aadhaar Enabled Payments, insurance, and government pension schemes. Airtel Payments Bank presently hosts 4 crores clients, across 5 lakh banking points.
Airtel Payment Bank CEO Ganesh Ananthanarayanan said that they were intending to increase its footprint by 50 percent by March 2021. The bank aims to become the largest banking system in the state, and a large number of banking points will provide services to customers from unbanked and underbanked geographies. Airtel Payments Bank is established to provide regular banking services to the deep rural areas of the country and endeavor to build an essential doorstep banking infrastructure.
Airtel Payments Bank has also commenced a partnership with Mastercard in May this year to create customized features for payments such as tap-and-pay NFC, credit facility, and other neighborhood banking assistance for farmers and SME’s. The partnership aims at creating a digital platform which contributes farmers with knowledge about smart farming techniques and contact to marketplaces, while at the same time enabling them to collect payments directly from the Airtel Payments Bank account and cater to the under-banked spectrum of users, allowing digital adoption.
