Bharti to launch Airtel Payments Bank on January 12

Bharti Airtel will launch Airtel Payments Bank on Thursday in presence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.

The Airtel Payments Bank rollout comes ahead of Vijay Shekhar Sharma's Paytm Payments Bank which is likely to be launched on January 15.

Airtel Payments Bank launched a pilot in Rajasthan on November 23, before taking the pilot to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in December. The company has said that it has opened over one lakh savings accounts in less than two weeks of rolling out its pilot services in Rajasthan.

"The customer response has been extremely positive and validates our retail based model that will also allow us to take our banking services closer to the customer. We have been able to deliver a smooth digital banking experience to customers and our systems have worked flawlessly to manage the quick scale up. We are also getting a good response from merchants and have further accelerated their onboarding," Shashi Arora, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Payments Bank, said.