Fino Payments Bank (Fino) has become the first such entity to get an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to transition into a small finance bank (SFB).
Most public sector banks, flush with deposits now, offer 3-4% interest on savings deposits, while a few private sector banks go up to 6%.
Experts contend that this setback, even if temporary, could put the company at a disadvantage to its competitors in acquiring new customers.
Bharti Airtel sees opportunity in raising tariff for data services as it feels that rich are paying less and poor are not required to pay anymore, a senior official of the company said. During the company's earnings call for the first quarter of the current fiscal, Bharti Airtel vice-chairman and MD Gopal Vittal said that the company has written to the government for a relief on adjusted gross revenue and has demanded that it should be given benefit at par with other telecom operator, without naming Vodafone Idea.
CEO Shashi Arora discusses his roadmap for Airtel Payments Bank with Karan Choudhury.
Payments banks have urged the Union finance ministry to increase their deposit limit for each account to Rs 5 lakh, according to a source who participated in a meeting, chaired by the Department of Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju, in New Delhi. At present, they can accept deposits of up to Rs 2 lakh.
'The transition from payment banks to SFBs is only permissible for banks not owned by corporate entities.'
The number of cyberfraud cases has skyrocketed from 2,677 in 1999-2000 to 29,082 in FY24 -- more than a 10-fold increase. The RBI pegs digital payment frauds at Rs 1,457 crore in FY24, up more than five times in a year. It's not just the number of frauds. What's alarming is the growing sophistication of the fraudsters, exposing the vulnerabilities within the financial system, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In the backdrop of the crisis brewing at Paytm Payments Bank, major fintech companies are ramping up their workforce and inducting new faces in their leadership teams, industry sources said on Wednesday. Users will not be able to add funds to their Paytm Payments Bank Wallet after February 29, though they will still be able to use the services and the existing balance in the wallets, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) diktat. Industry sources said that competitors to Paytm are investing heavily in offline payments while doubling their salesforce.
Payments banks are expecting to get the rights to offer small-ticket loans sometime soon, according to an industry source familiar with the matter. The industry has been in talks with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for some time in seeking lending rights.
RBI's exercise will take into account standards of governance, the viability of the payment bank (PB) business model, and changes, if any, if needed.
Bharti Airtel aims to leverage its 180 million plus digital service customers and its wide presence in rural areas to grow its payment bank business. "We are well placed as we can leverage the 180 million plus customers we have across our digital assets. "We offer a plethora of services such as lucrative interest rates, gift cards, FASTag, telecom recharges, payments and debit cards. "Our large merchant base of more than eight million allows us to drive both engagement and monetisation.
Many users did not know that their entitlement was not coming to their regular bank account but going to an account which they had not applied for.
India's second-largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a net profit of Rs 1,134 crore for the September 2021 quarter, and said it is witnessing strong business momentum with growth in 4G customers and increase in mobile ARPU. This is against a loss (attributable to owners of the parent) of 763.2 crore during the year-ago quarter, the company said in a statement. Its consolidated revenues for the second quarter of FY21 stood at Rs 28,326.4 crore, up 18.8 per cent year-on-year (on a comparable basis) and 13 per cent y-o-y on a reported basis, it added.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's CEO has warned customers about rising cases of cyber-frauds, citing a recent instance of a fraudster who posed as company executive and under the guise of updating KYC form, tricked a user into revealing bank details to transfer large amount from the bank account. In an email outreach to subscribers, Gopal Vittal, CEO of Airtel urged users to be vigilant against such cases of cyber fraud that are becoming "alarmingly frequent". Vittal spoke of a recent case where a cyber-fraudster posing as company executive called up an Airtel customer on the pretext of updating his Know Your Customer (KYC) form, tricked him into revealing his bank details and transferred a large sum of money from his bank account.
Currently, only three have completed more than six months of operation in the space - Fino Payments Bank, Airtel Payments Bank and Paytm
Bharti Airtel on Wednesday announced a new corporate structure to sharpen the company's focus on rapidly unfolding digital opportunities while enabling it to unlock value. The move comes at a time when digital is turning out to be a compelling proposition for players in the Indian market, where the use of smartphones and better broadband connectivity has spurred the adoption of a new range of services. Players are positioning themselves beyond the core telephony offerings, as they enhance digital engagement, build future streams of revenue and create brand differentiation, besides redefining themselves as a larger platform of digital services, say market watchers.
Priyadarshini Maji evaluates the impact that payment banks are likely to have on your financial life.
Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal on Thursday warned about a rise in cyber frauds amid a massive surge in online transactions during the second wave of the pandemic, and asserted the company is working "relentlessly" and coming out with safety features to ensure customers are not vulnerable to fraudsters. In an e-mail outreach to customers, Vittal highlighted the modus operandi being adopted by fraudsters and also drew attention to cyber frauds related to digital payments. "With the growing second wave of the pandemic and lockdowns in various parts of the country, there has been a massive increase in online transactions. "Unfortunately, there has also been a corresponding increase in cyber fraud," Vittal said.
It will carry out most banking operations like accepting deposits but can't advance loans or issue credit cards.
Bharti Airtel's total revenue for the December 2018 quarter stood at Rs 20,519 crore, just one per cent higher than the Rs 20,319 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
While payments banks surely lose money, their operating ratios were looking better in 2017-18 compared to the year before. This implies that as customer volumes start picking up, the business models may perk up too, says R Jagannathan.
The firm chooses UP for payments bank launch in February. Karan Choudhury reports.
'People, whose sensitive information has been leaked by State agencies or companies having license from UIDAI to access the Aadhaar database, can file suits, collectively or individually.'
'Apparently the entire biometric database's demographic data is available, which means that every Aadhaar signup is wide open to identity theft.' 'The commoditisation of the method -- selling the log-in for Rs 500 -- indicates that scammers have already harvested whatever they wanted,' points out Devangshu Datta.
Key questions remain about the operational and financial viability of a completely paperless bank such as India Post, says Mayank Jain.
The need of the hour, as the Supreme Court readies to rule on the constitutionality of Aadhaar, is for the UIDAI to fix the bugs, says Geetanjali Krishna, in the second and final part of her series.
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