Airtel Payments Bank enables BHIM UPI based payments at over 500,000 merchants

Consumers can make instant cashless payments at these merchants by using any BHIM UPI enabled bank or Payments app

• The solution benefits merchants by offering them convenience of a single digital payments window and reduced cash management risks
• Airtel Payments Bank plans to scale up the ecosystem to one million merchants in the next phase and contribute to the Government’s Digital India vision

New Delhi, June 4, 2019: Airtel Payments Bank today said that it has enabled open loop BHIM UPI based payments at over 500,000 merchant points across India, allowing consumers to make digital payments for good and services by using any BHIM UPI enabled bank or payments app over their mobile phones.

Airtel Payments Bank’s payments solution for merchants allows consumers to make instant cashless payments from their mobile phones, directly through their savings bank accounts by just scanning a merchant QR code through their preferred BHIM UPI enabled app. Airtel Payments Bank users can also use this QR to pay directly through their Savings Bank account or wallets using the Airtel Thanks app.

Consumers no longer need to go through the hassle of downloading and maintaining numerous payment apps, and can pay with any BHIM UPI enabled application of their choice. Making digital payments seamless as well as secure, Airtel Payments Bank powered BHIM UPI payments will enable customers to pay anywhere, anytime through a single interface.

Airtel Payments Bank powered BHIM UPI based payments are also beneficial for the merchants since they can now easily receive payments directly into their bank account, reducing the risk of cash management for them. Further, instead of cluttering the counter with multiple modes of payment acceptance, the merchant can now have a single QR code at their shop, making it convenient for them as well as consumers. Even at the back end, the merchants now only need to manage a single application over having to manage the applications of multiple vendors.

Airtel Payments bank merchants are a mix of small merchants as well as Large Format Retail outlets and covers almost all consumer categories such as food, lifestyle, electronics and more. Airtel Payments Bank plans to significantly ramp up its offline merchant base and plans to power at least one million offline merchants with its payment solution over the coming months.

Anubrata Biswas, MD & CEO – Airtel Payments Bank said, “We are committed to the vision of creating a cashless Indian economy by providing innovative and intuitive solutions with equal focus on consumer and merchant convenience. We are delighted to partner with NPCI to bring BHIM UPI powered payment solutions at millions of merchants across India, enabling seamless and secure digital payments.  This is an important step towards our aim of creating a ubiquitous digital payments ecosystem for all consumers.”

Dilip Ashbe, MD & CEO, NPCI said, “We are happy to collaborate with Airtel Payments Bank for BHIM UPI based payment solutions as it brings us closer to our mission of covering every citizen of the country through one or the other mode of digital payments. We believe that there is already a significant shift to a mobile-first strategy with consumers using functionality rich and user-friendly apps for P2P (peer-to-peer) or P2M (peer-to-merchant) payments. Our partnership with Airtel Payments Bank has currently enabled over half a million offline merchants to receive payments through UPI QR Code. This will help consumers to make instant and hassle free transactions digitally thereby adding to seamless customer experience.”