Expanding banking points, product lines to tap strong demand; debit cards for rural users in Q2: Airtel Payments Bank CEO

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Airtel Payments Bank is experiencing «strong tailwinds of demand», and will grow its banking points and deepen product offering range this year, as it looks to raise customer count and average realisation per user, according to CEO Anubrata Biswas. Airtel Payments Bank will also launch its physical debit card for rural banking consumers in September quarter (Q2FY24), having launched it already in urban markets.

«We are experiencing strong tailwinds of demand, and keeping our focus on consumer choice, sustainable model and costs...The opportunity is limitless as long as we stay focused on solving consumer needs and problems,» Biswas told PTI. The payments bank has grown by a CAGR of 35-40 per cent between mid 2018 and mid 2023, and expects to close the June quarter (Q1) with an annualised run rate of Rs 1,600 crore.

«Today our Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is in low 20s (in rupee terms), and as our product penetration increases, and cross-sell efforts increase, our ARPU will go up. With 56 million users now, we believe that the scope of digital and financial inclusion in India is a 500 million (user) opportunity, of which 300 million is in rural India and 200 million in urban India,» he said.

Solving the problems of consumers well with banking solution, therefore, offers a huge headroom for growth for the payments bank, he said adding Airtel Payments Bank is now serving the financial and digital inclusion needs of tens of millions of customers across rural and urban India. «If you grow ARPU and user growth together, we should certainly see if not equal, at least high growth rates from our model,» Biswas said.