Payments banks touch the lives of more than 100 million consumers each month, and enabling such players to offer small-ticket micro loans from their own balance sheets could significantly boost the viability of the model and enable more financial inclusion, Airtel Payments Bank managing director and chief executive officer Anubrata Biswas told fe on Friday.
“Today, if the payment bank industry is touching more than 100 million views, if we as an industry are allowed to offer small-ticket micro loans, then imagine the impact of financial inclusion which we will suddenly have where we bring millions of people into formal credit…,” the MD said, adding that such banks could be “much more prudent and pragmatic” in underwriting loans as they have a better last-mile connect with customers.
“Q4FY23 was our strongest quarter in the fiscal. To give some sense, we clocked around Rs 379 crore of revenue, up 19% QoQ, so just on an annualized Q4FY23, you would see stronger growth coming through in FY24. Because of our strong digital consumer propositions of convenience and safety, we are seeing a very strong uptick,” Biswas said.
“We see no abetting of it in the current year. So across three lines – deposit, payments and consumers using more products, which is resulting in fee income – all are showing healthy growth, therefore we expect to see a strong year going ahead as well…,” he added.
Further, Airtel Payments Bank is also seeing a strong uptick in user growth in rural areas and its digital channels. In rural hinterlands of Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha, the payments bank is seeing strong traction from tier-V and tier-VI cities, Biswas said.
“Both these markets are significantly under-penetrated, we are seeing this as a large, under-served opportunity, the need for safety in urban India and the need for convenience in rural India…we are choosing to continue to invest in growing our scale because the payment bank model and how it can serve India are really contingent on the scale…so the real metrics of value for us would be revenue growth, user growth and usage growth…,” the MD said.