Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), a leading telecommunications service provider in India and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) announced the launch of WhatsApp Banking Services for IPPB customers, enabling them to access banking services on their mobile phones.
The WhatsApp messaging solution will be delivered to customers through Airtel IQ – a cloud communications platform as a service that enables brands to engage with their customers across voice, SMS, and WhatsApp channels. Airtel is the first telecom company in the world that serves as a Business Service Provider (BSP) for WhatsApp.
Airtel will enable IPPB customers to seamlessly connect with the bank on WhatsApp and effortlessly avail a host of banking services including –doorstep service requests, locating nearest Post Office and much more. In line with the Govt.’s ambition to bring digital and financial inclusion to citizens of India in their language, the Airtel – IPPB WhatsApp Banking solution is also working on to build multi-language support, enabling added convenience to customers especially to those in the rural parts of the country to access banking services in their preferred language.
Airtel has been working with IPPB to deliver as many as 250 million messages per month to the bank’s customers many of whom are located in mofussil towns and tier 2,3 cities. The addition of WhatsApp messaging will add to customers’ accessibility to connect with the bank on their fingertips, furthering the Digital India mission of GoI, as part of which IPPB has been working tirelessly to deliver banking services in the rural pockets of the country.
Gursharan Rai Bansal, CGM & CSMO – of India Post Payments Bank said, “We are delighted to work with Bharti Airtel as our partner in driving digital and financial inclusion in India. We believe financial services driven by technology have great potential and can go a long way in ensuring that the best financial products reach the farthest corners of the country”.
Abhishek Biswal, Business Head – Airtel IQ said, “Airtel IQ is a robust, intuitive, and secure cloud communication suite. With the addition of WhatsApp messaging to the existing SMS and voice communication we offer to India Post Payments Bank customers, we will further enable two-way communication between the bank and its customers. We are delighted to continue our association with IPPB to contribute significantly to making banking services more accessible to tier2,3 cities in the country. We promise to continue delivering customer-centric solutions that offer greater convenience to customers”.
IPPB and Airtel IQ are working towards further integrating a LIVE interactive customer support agent into the WhatsApp solution which will enable customers to access 24X7 support and get quick resolutions for their queries.