SBI and Airtel join hands :Mobile Banking swinging High this Year

State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel today announced that they have entered into a Joint Venture (JV) agreement to make available banking services to India’s unbanked millions. The Joint Venture will become the Business Correspondent of SBI and offer banking products and services at affordable cost to the citizens in unbanked and other areas.

The JV as Business Correspondent will engage airtel’s retailers as Customer Service Points (CSP) all over India in a phased manner. With this, existing and new airtel mobile customers will be able to visit these outlets and open new SBI bank accounts and avail of other banking products and services available at the CSPs. Additionally, existing SBI customers will also get serviced at these outlets.

O. P. Bhatt, Chairman, State Bank of India said, 'State Bank of India has always been in the forefront of Financial Inclusion initiatives. More than 67% of its massive (13,000) branch network is in rural and semi urban areas. In the last four years, the bank has set up more than 15,000 Customer Service Points of Business Correspondents as well as 13,000 Business Facilitators, to increase its outreach. With this, we look forward to taking the benefits of banking to the Indian masses and building a more inclusive society thereby carrying forward State Bank’s vision of being the Banker to every Indian'.

Last year, Bharti Airtel was granted license to use the Semi Closed Wallet by Reserve Bank of India(RBI).Operators like BSNL, Airtel, TTSL, Reliance are showing interest in this space. The RBI has so far permitted thirty-two banks to provide mobile banking facility in India, and twenty-one out of them have started providing these services. Airtel's and Sbi's colaboration has made M Banking practical enough for its success.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti airtel said, 'This historic collaboration between SBI and airtel brings together two sectors that have made the most impact in addressing inclusive growth. This will be a complete game changer, leveraging SBI’s expertise in the banking sector along with airtel’s 150 million strong customer base and ecosystem of over 1.5 million retailers and distributors across India. Together, we will create a scalable operation that will address the banking requirements of millions of Indians through the mobile platform.'

The JV incorporation between SBI and airtel will be concluded by 31st March, 2011.