Bharti, SBI to invest Rs100 crore in mobile banking JV

New Delhi: India’s top mobile operator Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India (SBI) will together initially invest Rs100 crore ($22 million) in a joint venture for mobile-based banking, O.P. Bhatt, chairman of the country’s top lender, said on Wednesday.

Bharti Airtel said in September it had received a licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to launch mobile payment services.

Bharti Airtel had 149.4 million mobile customers in India at end-November, in a market of more than 700 million mobile users. India is the world’s fastest-growing and the second-biggest market for mobile connections.