The RBI has imposed a monetary penalty of ₹5 crore on Airtel Payments Bank for violating the apex bank’s operating guidelines and KYC (know your customer) directions.

There are about four payment banks operating in the country — Airtel Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Bank, Fino Payments Bank and IndiaPost.

The RBI, in a statement, said the action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.

The RBI said based on several complaints and adverse media reports, alleging that the bank had opened customer accounts without a clear/specific consent of the customers, a supervisory visit to the bank was undertaken by it between November 20 and 22, 2017, and found out that the ‘Operating Guidelines for Payments Banks’ and the directions issued by RBI on KYC were being violated.

In December last, UIDAI had taken cognisance of the matter and had suspended the e-KYC licence of the Sunil Mittal-owned Airtel Payments Bank after finding out that the bank was using the Aadhaar-eKYC based SIM verification process to bank accounts of its subscribers without their knowledge.

UIDAI had also found out that the bank accounts were being linked to receive LPG subsidy granted by the government.

The RBI, meanwhile, said that a show-cause notice was given to the bank on January 15, 2018, as to why there should be no penalty on the bank.

A senior banking official, requesting anonymity, said: “Revoking licence would create panic among the customers and hence monetary penalisation was a good step by the RBI.”

According to reports, about 23 lakh customers of Airtel Payment Banks received about ₹43 crore in their bank accounts , which they did not know had been opened.

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