The telco giant was blamed for opening bank accounts of existing customers without the latter’s express permission and was not given nod to resume
After a long controversy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday, finally offered its approval to Airtel Payments Bank and said that the telco major can add new customers to the bank and start registering new accounts.
Airtel reportedly opened bank accounts without the express permissions of customers
A spokesperson from Airtel Payments Bank said,“Airtel Payments Bank has received requisite approvals from the Reserve Bank of India to start onboarding new customers,”
The spokesperson added:“Airtel Payments Bank has also been permitted by the UIDAI to resume the on-boarding of customers using Aadhaar based e-KYC. We thank the authorities for the approvals. We remain committed to the Government’s vision of financial inclusion and banking for all.”
The telco giant had originally come under the radar after it was reported that it has opened bank accounts of existing customers without even seeking for their express permissions. These accounts had eventually caused rerouting of government subsidies for LPG with Rs 1.68 billion going straight to Airtel Payments Bank accounts with the customers not even aware of the same.
The bank has been permitted to use Aadhaar e-KYC to register customers
In January 2018, Airtel Payments Bank was barred from adding new customers due to a pending RBI enquiry and report on the same. However, the bank now seems to have received the green signal from RBI to continue with its normal operations and has also got permission to use Aadhaar e-KYC to sign up customers.
Last month on May 16, in a circular, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had also declined Airtel to access e-KYC services where UIDAI had categorised KYC users as local and global Authentication User Agency (AUAs). While local AUAs received limited access from UIDAI only through Virtual IDs, global AUAs were given full e-KYC services except for Airtel Payments Bank.
