Airtel Payments Bank is targeting around 50% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in FY25, MD & CEO Anubrata Biswas told FE. The overall deposits stood at Rs 2,801 crore as on March 2024, with monthly transacting users (MTUs) at 80.4 million.

“We should have a strong double-digit growth rate in the same range in FY25 as well. As the model has matured, average balance per user has also grown. Further, we are also onboarding higher quality users — from the urban and digital segments,” he said.

Payments banks are allowed to accept up to Rs 2 lakh of deposits per user, but can’t lend from their own books. Biswas says the payments bank has seen 4-10x rise in the digital accounts and FasTags account onboarding. The trend accelerated especially during February-April. 

The higher onboarding of customers coincides with the date when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in January barred Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers over serious violation of regulatory norms. 

“We saw that people, especially in February, March and April, were flocking towards the need of a second safe transaction account which is digital. This has rapidly accelerated our account opening,” Biswas said.

The payments bank on Wednesday reported a 42% y-o-y growth in revenues to Rs 1,836 crore and 15% sequential rise at Rs 539 crore. Overall revenue will continue growing in the similar range in FY25, Biswas said. Overall gross merchandise value (GMV), meanwhile, will grow by Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 crore per month, he added. The annualised GMV stood at Rs 2.55 trillion in FY24.

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Further, Airtel Payments Bank will soon launch a zero-KYC card to further expand its user base. In February, RBI allowed banks and non-bank prepaid payment instrument issuers to extend zero-KYC card with Rs 3,000 maximum limit. The card can be exclusively used for transit in metros, buses, trains, among others, Biswas said. Lastly, the payments bank will likely conduct its IPO in 2027, he added.