Active customers are the individuals who transact with the payment bank or individuals who hold cash with it.
Airtel Payments Bank has been witnessing roughly 5-7% month-on-month progress in its deposit base constantly for the last six months, its MD & CEO Anubrata Biswas stated on Wednesday.
Presently, the financial institution has two crore active savings accounts. “During the pandemic our savings account customer base has increased, mainly in rural areas. Today, we are present in one lakh tier-VI villages. During Covid times people have really found value in this deep rural distribution,” Biswas informed FE.
“We have seen roughly 5-7% month-on-month growth in deposit base consistently for the last six months,” he informed. Payments bank cannot undertake lending activities. These banks are allowed to invest minimum 75% of the customer deposits in government securities or treasury bills, and maximum 25% in current and time or fixed deposits with different scheduled industrial banks for operational functions and liquidity administration, in response to the RBI’s tips for licensing of payment banks.
“The return from the government securities and the rates they offer will definitely be the future income driver for us,” Biswas said. Airtel Payments Bank is India’s first Payments Bank that launched in January, 2017. It grew to become an affiliate of Bharti Airtel with impact from November 1, 2018.
The financial institution’s active consumer base has been rising round 60-65% on year-on-year basis. Active customers are the individuals who transact with the fee financial institution or individuals who hold cash with it.
“Currently we have an active user base of five crores. Especially, during Covid we have grown a lot in terms of active customer base, volume of transactions and revenues, among others. Our business correspondent network has really grown in size and scale. So, that business has grown. And, numerous companies have realised that during this time they can use the technology and network that we provide for services. So, that business has also grown,” the MD stated.
In line with Biswas, the financial institution’s whole revenues grew considerably as Covid has led to rise in digital transactions, development in institutional providers and wholesome development in enterprise.
“The increase in business is built on principle of access. We are running the largest banking network in the country today. We have 340,000 monthly lively banking points. In terms of banking points, we are running roughly double the formal banking size throughout the country,” he informed, including on institutional services segment the financial institution was providing money providers and money administration, and it will be the most important micro-cash providers participant within the nation.
After it introduced “Safe Pay” safety function in January this yr to guard its prospects from rising incidents of on-line fee fraud, round 2.5 lakh prospects are utilizing the product, which is non-obligatory. “Initially a lot of our existing customers switch it on. Then, new customers are coming everyday,” Biswas knowledgeable.
“This product is the first time in the nation. A telecom company and a bank have come together to offer a solution, where the telecom network and the SIM of the users are linked to flash a message on the phone screen before the transaction is processed in the bank account,” he added.
