Today you will know what is Payments Bank, what benefits you will get and how you can open your account in it. After the demonetization of 500 and 1000 rupees, it has become very difficult to pay anyone in cash, so our Indian government has asked for our facilities to make Cashless Payments where money can be sent directly from one account to another.
New mobile applications have been created to promote cashless payments like BHIM and UPI which are being used by millions of people for online transactions today. With the help of these apps, any person can complete the payment by sitting in any corner of the world.
Apart from these apps, there is another way which will help us to fill the payment and send money to our friends, apart from this it will provide many more facilities.
A new type of banking facility is going to be started in the country, which has been named Payments Bank. What is a Payment Bank and how will it be useful to the people? Today we will learn about this topic.
What is Payments Bank?
Payment bank is different from traditional banks. But it will work like a normal bank which will be available at the regional level and it will do banking work keeping in mind the interests of the regional people. In this, people working in small businesses and earning low income can also open their accounts.
Payments bank is a kind of bank that has been started for those people who are unable to reach the services of banking in remote villages, towns and employees doing small jobs.
The purpose of opening the Payment Bank has been to promote financial inclusion so that through this all the banking facilities can reach to the poor and low-income people who have been deprived of it till now.
Who will provide the payment bank facility?
RBI which regulates the banking system in India has authorized some companies to bank payments. RBI had received applications from 41 companies for the payments bank, out of which 11 have been found eligible to give license to open the bank. The list of the names of those companies is given below.
- Airtel M-commerce services
- Paytm
- Aditya Birla Nuvo (Idea)
- Department of Posts
- FINO PayTech
- National securities Depository
- Cholamandalam Distribution services
- Reliance Industries
- Sun Pharmaceuticals
- Tech Mahindra
- Vodafone M.pesa
Which facilities will be available from Payments Bank and which are not
1. Any person can easily open an account in Payments bank and no necessary documents are required to open the account, the account can be opened only through Aadhar Card.
2. The account holder in the Payments bank can deposit a maximum amount of up to one lakh rupees, in which he will also get interest as mixed in the savings to account in other banks.
3. Payments bank will facilitate transactions through internet banking. This will encourage cashless transactions in the banking system.
4. Money transactions can be done through this. Payments bank will provide the service of payment and remittance through its branches and mobile banking.
5. This bank will give ATM cards and debit cards to its customers which can be used in any bank’s ATM. But this bank will not be able to issue a credit card because it has not been allowed to them.
6. Payments bank will take deposits only from people living in our country, people from outside and NRI people are not allowed to deposit money in this bank.
7. Payments banks cannot give loans to customers like regular banks, this bank can only open a savings account where important can deposit their money.
8. The operation of Payments bank will be completely based on technology and hence the companies which have got licensed payments bank are companies like telecom and e-commerce. Only companies based on the technology will use technology to woo customers, which will directly benefit the customers.
Out of all the companies that RBI has given license to open payments bank till now, the first company to start banking work is Airtel. So let’s know what facilities Airtel company is providing to its customers.
Airtel Payments Bank
Airtel has started the country’s first payments bank. After the announcement of the note ban by the central government, the first such bank in the country opened in Rajasthan. This bank of Airtel will give interest at the rate of 7.25 percent on savings accounts, whereas most banks give only 4 percent interest on savings accounts. Let’s take a look at what other facilities Airtel payment bank is providing.
1. Depositing money in a saving account in Airtel payment bank will get 7.25% interest.
2. In this, there will be no charge for sending money from Airtel to Airtel number or to other banks.
3. On withdrawing money from your account, you will have to pay a 0.65% charge.
4. In this, free accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh will be available.
5. In this you can open your account directly with an Aadhar card.
6. Airtel will add free calling minutes of the same amount to your mobile, if you deposit money the first time, Airtel can give a maximum of 1000 minutes of free talk time.
7. Your mobile number will be your account number.
8. You do not have to have an Airtel number to open an account in the Airtel payment bank, even if you do not have Airtel SIM, you can still open your account with Aadhar card.
9. With the help of this app, you can pay online mobile recharge, dth recharge and electricity bill payment.
How to open an account on Airtel Payment Bank?
1. Go to where you get the Airtel number recharged, go to the nearest Airtel retailer outlet because this facility has been started by Airtel distributors and retailers only.
2. To open the account, take your aadhar card with you or take other id proof like a pan card, driving license, etc.
3. Airtel payment bank is connected with Airtel’s network, so if you have Airtel’s sim card then you can open your account from your smart phone itself.
4. After login into the My Airtel app, you will see the option of Airtel payment bank where you have to enter your aadhar card number, after that your account will be opened after entering your personal details.
5. At least Rs 500 will be required to open an account.
Out of 11 companies that RBI has given license to make payment bank, three companies Cholamandalam, Tech Mahindra and Sun pharmaceuticals have withdrawn their applications i.e. now they do not want to make payment bank. Other companies will start their payment bank soon this year.