Airtel Payments Bank, HPCL Align to boost India’s digital payments ecosystem

Airtel Payments Bank customers will be able to make secure and convenient digital payments for fuel purchases at over 14,000 HPCL fuel stations

All these fuel stations will also act as banking points for Airtel Payments Bank and offer account opening, cash deposit and withdrawal facilities to customers.

Airtel Payments Bank, India’s first payments bank, has entered into a strategic partnership with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), to give further boost to digital payments in the country and to add to customer convenience.

All 14,000 HPCL fuel stations will act as banking points for Airtel Payments Bank. All Airtel Payments Bank customers would be able to access a range of convenient banking services at these 14,000 fuel stations e.g., open new accounts, make cash deposits and withdrawals facility, and transfer money. This will add to the depth and reach of Airtel Payments Bank’s retail based network that leverages over 300,000 Airtel retail outlets as banking points.

Airtel Payments Bank customers will also be able to make secure and convenient digital payments for fuel purchases across 14,000 HPCL fuel stations by using their mobile phones. These cashless payments can be made via smartphones (MyAirtel App) as well as feature phones (USSD). The customer is not charged any transaction fee for these digital payments. This partnership will further expand Airtel’s nationwide digital payments ecosystem that has over 3 million merchant partners/outlet across India.

Shashi Arora, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank said in a statement, “We are delighted to partner HPCL as part of our endeavor to build a robust and diverse merchant ecosystem that brings more digital payments avenues to our customers. We are, in particular, pleased to have these fuel outlets as our banking points. We are confident that this partnership will add to the growth of digital payments in the country and contribute to the Government’s Digital India vision.”

G S V Prasad, Executive Director – Retail at HPCL said in a statement, “We are pleased to join hands with Airtel Payments Bank to promote digital payments in the country and contribute to the government’s digital India endeavor. Customer visiting our outlets will now be able to pay seamlessly for fuel purchases and will also be able to enjoy the added convenience of banking with Airtel Payments Bank. We are confident our customers will benefit significantly with this unique association.

Airtel payments Bank’s bouquet of innovative and convenient services include:

•Digital Banking: Quick and paperless account opening using Aadhaar based e-KYC. This requires no documents at all, only the customer’s Aadhaar number is needed.
•The customer’s mobile number will be his/her bank account number.
•Interest rate of 7.25 % p.a. on deposits in savings accounts, the highest in India.
•Money transfer to any bank account in India (Free money transfer from Airtel-to-Airtel numbers within Airtel Payments Bank).
•Free Personal Accidental Insurance of Rs. 1 Lac with every Savings Account.
•Easy deposit and withdrawal facility across a wide network of Airtel retail outlets.
•USSD and IVR in 12 languages for non-smartphone customers.
•An online debit card in partnership with MasterCard.
•A nationwide digital payments ecosystem with over one million merchants