List of All the 6 (+1 Closed) Payments Banks of India

Out of the 41 applicants, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved 11 banks for the provisional payment bank licenses.

Till the end of 2019, there are 6 active Payment Banks (PB) that RBI has approved. These licenses are given by RBI under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

Bharti Airtel set up the very first payment bank of India.

Payment banks can offer services like ATM cards, internet-banking, mobile-banking. These banks have even powers to even operate current and savings accounts.

In this blog post, you will find some useful information related to all the 6 active payments banks; like when were they started and what are their future plans.

So, here we go…

Indian Payment Banks List

List of 6 Active Indian Payment Banks

1. Airtel Payments Bank

Airtel Payments Bank is the very first to receive license from the RBI. The license was given in 2015 and the bank became fully functional from September 2016.

It’s a joint venture by Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank (19.9% stake). In 2019, Airtel has also partnered with Bharti AXA General Insurance.

In November 2016, Airtel set up its very first payment bank pilot services in Rajasthan.

On 16 December 2017, UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) had suspended Airtel’s use of Aadhaar for eKYC. However, the license got resumed on 12 July 2018.

Airtel Payments Bank has the following services/features:

  • UPI (Unified Payments Interface) Digital Payments
  • Airtel Money Digital Wallet
  • Provides PMJJBY Insurance Plan (Govt. Project)
  • Offers Atal Pension Yojana (Govt. Project)

At the time of establishment, Airtel payments bank’s capital was $441 million (₹3,000 crores).

2. India Post Payments Bank

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) is a 100% Indian government owned public sector bank. It operates under the Ministry of Communications with the Department of Posts.

The government’s main goal of setting this payment bank to utilize all of India’s 155,015 post offices as access outlets. It also aims to provide house-to-house banking services by utilizing all the 3 lacs postal postmen and Grameen Dak Sewaks.

The IPPB was started on 1 September 2018; and till 4 January 2020, it has acquired more than 1.5 crore customers all over India.

However it has chosen to operate at a smaller scale by not providing any kinds of loans like the other payment banks.

India Post Payments Bank has the following services/features:

  • IMPS, NEFT and RTGS Services
  • UPI Digital Payments
  • Direct Benefit Transfer
  • Supports Bharat BillPay
  • Savings and Current Accounts

At the time of establishment, India Post Payment Bank’s capital was ~ $200 million (₹1,435 crores).

3. Paytm Payments Bank

Paytm is well-known as an Indian e-commerce payment system based in Noida.

In August 2015, RBI granted license to Paytm to open a payments bank. However, Paytm Payments Bank is a separate entity in which 51% shares are owned by the founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

The payments bank became operational from November 2017. Paytm had planned to set up more than 100,000 access points or banking outlets by the end of 2018; but by the end of 2019, it has failed to touch even 3 digits for some reasons.

Paytm Payments Bank has the following services/features:

  • Rupay Debit Cards
  • No account fees and charges
  • UPI Digital Payments
  • Money Withdrawal from Any ATM

Paytm Payments Bank had received a total of $28.2 million (₹200 crores) as funding amount.

4. Jio Payments Bank

The Reserve Bank of India approved the Jio Payments Bank in August 2015. The payments bank became operational from April 2018.

Jio Payments Bank is a joint venture of Reliance Industries (70% stake) and State Bank of India i.e. SBI (30% stake). It has registered itself as a public limited company on 10 November 2016.

However, the Jio Payments Bank cannot provide any loans or credit cards to its customers. It has planned to establish more than 70,000 banking outlets across the multiple cities of India.

Jio Payments Bank has the following features/services:

  • Online Payment Service
  • UPI Digital Payments
  • Digital Wallet
  • Quick Account Opening

5. NSDL Payments Bank

NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) is one of the 6 functional payments banks in India. It is in function from 29 October 2018 as stated by the RBI in this press release.

However, NSDL Payments Bank is a non-government company and comes under “company limited by shares” category.

Authorized Capital for the company is more than $29 million (₹200 crores) and is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

6. Fino Payments Bank

The Fino Payments Bank was launched with 400+ branches and more than 25,000 banking points on day one. It is in function from 4 April 2017.

It is one of the 6 payments banks which received license access from the RBI.

The company has been around since 2006 as a Payment solution and earlier it was named as Fino Paytech Limited. Later, in 2017 it got relaunched as a payments bank.

7. Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank [Closed]

Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank was a joint venture by the Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited (51% stake) and the Idea Cellular Limited (49% stake).

The bank was in function from February 2018.

However, 20 July 2019, Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank announced closure of its operations subject to the receipt of requisite regulatory consents and approvals.

Final Words

The deposit that customers can make to these payment banks is currently limited to ₹100,000 i.e. ₹1 Lac only which might get revised in the near future.

And, no doubts that these conceptualized banks have taken the online banking to the next level. Online payments and things have become easier for us to use as a consumer.

But, there is still some security and safety issues that these banks need to work on.

That’s it.

If you have a related query, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

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