Bharti Airtel has officially renamed its subsidiary Airtel M Commerce Services to Airtel Payments Bank on Tuesday. The company also plans to launch the services in the second quarter of the current fiscal.
“The new identity reflects our strong focus on the payments bank segment. With Airtel’s deep distribution network, we believe that Airtel Payments Bank is uniquely placed to deliver quality banking services to customers by leveraging the power of mobile telephony,” said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel.
Airtel became the first entity in the country to receive a payments bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on April 11. The company plans to start rolling out its banking network in the second quarter of the current financial year.
RBI had given a nod in August 2015 to the companies such as Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Vodafone m-pesa, Department of Posts, for starting operations as a payments bank.
Airtel M-Commerce Services began in 2011 providing money transfer services and semi-closed wallet services. These services have the presence in over 800 towns across the country. Kotak Mahindra Bank has 19.90 percent stake in Airtel Payments Bank, which it bought for about Rs 98.8 crore.