Airtel Payments Bank sees spike in new customers

Airtel Payments Bank has seen a significant surge in new customers applying online for various services, including bank account openings and FASTags, over the past few days, managing director and chief executive officer Anubrata Biswas told FE.

Biswas’ comments came in the backdrop of the Reserve Bank of India’s action against Paytm Payments Bank on January 31, when the regulator directed it to stop offering fresh deposits, credit and top-ups in FasTag accounts after February 29.

“We are seeing, over the last few weeks and days, a significant uptick in customers applying to us. Online applications for our digital products, including savings account and FASTags, have grown five times each,” Biswas said.

Airtel Payments Bank’s overall deposits grew 50% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2,339 crore as on December 31. The payments bank is acquiring close to 900,000 deposit accounts per month and is witnessing a sharp uptick in the user base from rural areas, Biswas said. The number of monthly transacting users stood at 59 million during Q3.

“We are seeing growth in new customer acquisition on the savings account side. In Q2FY24, we had said that we intend to hit 1 million customers a month in some quarters, and that run rate seems to be on track, primarily because consumers are organically coming to us,” he said.

While deposits will continue growing over 50% YoY in the coming quarters, overall revenue will sustain the current pace of 47% growth during Q4. The payments bank’s overall revenue for the quarter ended December was at Rs 469 crore.

Gross merchandise value, or GMV, which stood at Rs 2.62 trillion during Q3 on an annualised basis, will rise between 25% and 30% on a YoY basis each quarter. Annualised transactions at more than 7 billion during December will continue rising at the similar pace of nearly 30% in Q4, Biswas said.

Airtel Payments Bank currently has around 500,000 touch points across the country, of which over 400,000 are active. The lender will open close to 20,000 active touch points each quarter going ahead, Biswas said.

The payments bank reported a net profit of Rs 11 crore for the third quarter of the current fiscal.