Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd (AMSL), a unit of Bharti Airtel Ltd, said it secured a payments bank licence. Payments banks will offer basic savings, deposit, payment and remittance services to people without access to the formal banking system. Bharti Airtel will set up the payments bank in partnership with Kotak Mahindra Bank, which holds 19.9% stake in AMSL.

AMSL was incorporated in April 2010. It is in the business of providing the service of semi-closed prepaid instrument and offers services under the ‘Airtel Money’ brand name. Total revenue of AMSL in 2014-15 was Rs.121.4 crore, up from Rs.42.6 crore in the previous financial year, according to disclosures made by Kotak Mahindra in February when the purchase of stake in AMSL was concluded.

Airtel M Commerce was among the 11 entities that were granted an in-principle approval by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in August 2015. Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd; Cholamandalam Distribution Services Ltd; Department of Posts; FINO PayTech Ltd; National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL); Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL); Tech Mahindra Ltd; and Vodafone m-pesa Ltd, a unit of Vodafone India Ltd, were among the other entities given in-principle approval.

Two individuals—Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi, founder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of One97 Communications that runs Paytm, the mobile commerce and mobile payment company, were also among those given approval.

These entities were given 18 months to get the final licence from RBI and launch services. One of the licencees—the Cholamandalam group has decided not to pursue a payments bank venture.