Airtel Payments Bank, the digital payments platform on Sunday announced the integration of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on its digital platform. By integration UPI on its platform, Airtel Payments Bank becomes the first payments bank in India to offer UPI services on its platform.
"This would allow all our 20 million bank customers to create their personalised UPI handles on the Airtel app and enable them to make digital payments in both the offline and online space. Our bank customers would also be able to link their bank accounts to BHIM app and make UPI payments," said Shashi Arora, MD and CEO, Airtel Payments Bank.
"Payments banks are capable of facilitating remittances and payments to a large user base especially to the underserved area as per the RBI's vision. We are happy to on-board Airtel Payments Bank on BHIM/UPI platform," said Dilip Asbe, Chief Operating Officer, National Payments Corp of India (NPCI).
"Through this association, we foresee a significant rise in digital transactions at untapped merchant locations and person-to-person payments space," Dilip added.
Having said that, this will add to customer choice and convenience for making secure digital payments to online/offline merchants and making instant transfers to any bank account in India.
"For UPI-based payments and transfers, the customers are not required to furnish their bank details to enable transactions and can create easy to remember IDs, ensuring optimal data security," said Airtel in a press statement.
Also, you can now add the Airtel Payments Bank as a UPI payment option in UPI-based apps such as Google Tez, BHIM, PhonePe, etc. Airtel Payments Bank recently announced a strategic partnership with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), to give a further boost to digital payments in the country and to add to customer convenience.
Airtel Payments Bank currently has over one million merchants in its platform, and the country's largest telecom operator has already set up over 300,000 Airtel retail outlets as banking points.
