Airtel Payments Bank, which launched its pilot operations in Rajasthan on 23 November, has opened over 10,000 savings accounts within the first two days of the operations. The bank said most of the accounts have been opened in semi-urban and rural areas. The bank offers the highest annual interest rate of 7.25% and an insurance of Rs 1 lakh per account. Shashi Arora, managing director, Airtel Payments Bank, said the differentiated banking model will offer a lot of convenience to customers and the bank is hopeful of onboarding more customers. The pilot operations available across 10,000 Airtel retail outlets of Airtel in Rajasthan. The bank facilitates cashless purchases of goods and services through mobile phones. The bank now plans to have a network of 100,000 shops across Rajasthan by the end of the year. All these outlets will accept digital payments using a mobile phone without charging any processing fee. One can open an account using e-KYC through Aadhar card and can then deposit and withdraw cash.
