Airtel Payments Bank today announced the launch of Atal Pension Yojana for its savings account customers. Airtel Payments Bank has become the first payments bank in the country to offer this Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) administered scheme.

An initiative by the Government of India, Atal Pension Yojana is primarily aimed at providing pension benefits and social security for workers in the unorganized sector. The scheme is available to account holders between the age of 18 to 40 and offers minimum guaranteed monthly pension between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 5,000, depending on the customer’s contribution which starts at as low as Rs.42 per month. In addition, the spouse gets a monthly pension after the death of the subscriber and the nominee gets the corpus amount of upto Rs. 8.5 lakh in the event of the death of the subscriber and the spouse.

Airtel Payments Bank account holders can opt for Atal Pension Yojana through a quick, simple, secure and paperless process at 50,000 banking points across India. Going forward, Airtel Payments Bank aims to expand the availability of the scheme at 100,000 of its banking points.

Commenting on the strategic initiative, Mr. Anubrata Biswas, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Payments Bank, said, “We are committed to building a financially inclusive India, and are happy to partner with PFRDA to add Atal Pension Yojana to the suite of financial inclusion products offered through our banking platform. With our unique and vast distribution, we can extend the benefits of this scheme to the unorganized workforce in a simple, easy and transparent manner, enabling financial security for all.”

PFRDA in a statement said: “Established with the primary objective of financial inclusion, the payment banks are poised to make a significant contribution to deeply proliferate financial services among the population who are underserved by the banking network. Their outreach, technology platform and the potential target segment perfectly aligns with the ideal customer profiling of a Atal Pension Yojna subscriber. We are delighted to engage with Airtel Payments Bank and are confident that this partnership will help increase enrolments for Atal Pension Yojna across India.”

Airtel Payments Bank has also been recognised by the PFRDA with the “APY Leadership Capital Award” in the “Small Finance Bank & Payments Bank Category”. Mr. Anubrata Biswas received the award from Shri. Rajeev Kumar, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Airtel Payments Bank has also joined hands with Bharti AXA to offer Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), a government-backed life insurance scheme aimed at increasing penetration of life insurance products among the underinsured masses and boosting financial inclusion.