Airtel Payments Bank sees spike in new customers applying for bank accounts, FASTag

The RBI has directed the Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting deposits or top-ups in customer accounts, wallets, FASTags and other instruments after February 29. (Bloomberg)

Airtel Payments Bank has seen a strong surge in the number of new customers applying online for opening bank accounts and offerings like FASTag over the last few days, CEO Anubrata Biswas said on Friday.

Biswas, however, did not confirm whether the spike was a result of users moving over from Paytm Payments Bank following the RBI’s January 31 action against the associate company of One97 Communications Limited (OCL).

The RBI has directed the Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting deposits or top-ups in customer accounts, wallets, FASTags and other instruments after February 29. Persistent non-compliance by Paytm with the regulatory guidelines despite nudges over a period of time ultimately led to the stern action against the fintech, the RBI has said making it clear that there are no systemic worries.

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Speaking about the performance and operational metrics of Airtel Payments Bank, Biswas told PTI, “All our digital products, be it customers who have an account applying for fixed deposit, be it new customers applying online for bank account or customers applying for FASTag, all are 5-7 times the January rates. This has happened over the last few days.” The online application for digital products such as savings bank account and FASTag products has grown 5-7 times in last few days, according to Biswas.

“There seems to be a swelling of uptake on Bank’s products for whatever context there may be…,” Biswas said.

Meanwhile, Airtel Payments Bank said it continued to witness a strong growth trajectory in the December 2023 quarter with revenues at Rs 469 crore, up by 47 per cent year-on-year, while net profit stood at Rs 11 crore, up by 120 per cent over the year ago period.

The bank’s Monthly Transacting Users (MTU) grew to 59 million giving a boost to customer deposits, which grew by 50 per cent year on year to Rs 2,339 crore during the quarter.

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The bank’s annualised Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) stood at over Rs 2,62,800 crore. The bank also witnessed an increase in fee income, driven by newly launched products including debit card and savings bank account.

Airtel Payments Bank serves customers across geographies in three segments — the urban digital, the rural underbanked, and industries and businesses.

With its digital banking solutions along with a slew of digital financial services like insurance, lending, and investment solutions, Airtel Payments Bank now processes over 7 billion annualised transactions across its platforms.