Last year, Airtel Kenya launched the Airtel Money VISA card in partnership with Chase Bank that allowed customers to withdraw cash from any Visa or Kenswitch ATM and conduct online transactions. As of May 2015, Kshs. 20 million is transacted monthly using the card with 60% ATM withdrawals and 40% at VISA merchants with average transaction value at VISA merchants being Kshs. 2,500 per transaction. The Airtel Money Card mirrors the customer’s personal Airtel Money account. This means whatever balance the customer has in his personal Airtel money account, is equivalent to how much he has on the Airtel Money card.
In a move aimed at increasing the usage of Airtel Money services, Airtel Kenya has partnered with I&M bank seeking to increase mobile financial services. The partnership will allow Airtel Money users who are also I&M Bank account holders’ to link their money wallets to their bank accounts. This means that they can “pull” money from their bank accounts into their Airtel Money wallets or “push” money from their Airtel Money wallets to their I&M Bank accounts automatically. Airtel Kenya currently has 3,119,812 subscribers on its Airtel Money service according to the Communication Authority of Kenya fourth quarter statistics.
The partnership is modeled on two services, where Airtel money will offer 2 types of real-time funds transfers as described below; transfer of money from I&M Bank Account to Airtel Money (B2C) and transfer funds from Airtel Money to I&M Bank account (C2B). The users of the service will also enjoy it from I&M mobile banking apps for Android, Windows and iOS.
The minimum transaction threshold has been set for Ksh. 100 while the maximum amount per single transaction is Ksh. 70,000. A Cumulative limit for daily transactions using the service is set at Ksh. 140,000. To push money to their I&M account from Airtel Money wallet, a customer will be charged a flat fee of Ksh.30 per transaction while pull money from an I&M Bank account to their Airtel Money wallet they will be charged a flat rate of Ksh.35.
