Arun Jaitley to launch India's first payments bank today

Mumbai: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will launch today country’s first payments bank, Airtel Payments Bank, in national capital today.

Airtel Payments Bank is a subsidiary of leading cellular operator Bharti Airtel.

The Reserve Bank of India gave in-principle nod to as many as 11 companies who wanted to start payments banks in 2015. Out of 11, three surrendered their licences to the apex bank.

In January 2017, digital wallet company Paytm also received final approval from RBI to start a payments bank.

Payments bank is a fully digital bank where no physical transaction takes place in everyday banking. Customers can access their accounts using their smart- or feature phones.