Airtel Payments Bank has found a way to make a virtue out of necessity.

In September, it launched a campaign to get people to open their “second” bank accounts with it. The eight-year-old payments bank is the largest by revenue and has 51 million customers, but that’s still about half of what a large lender like HDFC Bank has. So to bring in more users, it wants other banks’ users to also use the payments bank, not because it’s any more convenient, cheap, or fast, but for safety.

The country saw payments frauds worth Rs 520 crore ($58 million) in the 2025 financial year, according to the Reserve Bank of India. A surveyBusiness Standard1 in 5 UPI users faced fraud; 51% victims didn't report, reveals survey in June by Local Circle, a citizen-engagement organisation that surveyed 32,000 people in over 350 districts, showed that one in five families with a UPI user fell for a fraud.

Airtel Payment Bank’s solution to this is part practical, part opportunistic, where it hopes to convert its long-standing impediment—bank accounts with a deposit limit of Rs 2 lakh—into a virtue.

“There are other digital players who offer similar things in convenience,” said Anubrata Biswas, managing director and chief executive at Airtel Payments Bank. Like other digital banks, this one too checks the boxes for fast account opening, zero-balance accounts, and 6.25% interest on deposits. “But the notion of protecting digital payments by using a payment bank, which has deposit limits, has become a very compelling proposition,” he added.

What they are trying to say is, even if you lose your wallet to a pickpocket, the money in your house is safe

Anand Venkatanarayanan, strategic cyber-security advisor

Transferring a part of one’s salary to another spend-only bank account surely limits the potential loss of money in the event of fraud. And early results for the bank are encouraging.

In October, Airtel Payments Bank ranked just behind State Bank of India in UPI autopay volumes, clocking 80 million recurring transactions.