New Delhi, March 27 Airpay Payment Services announced on Friday that it has partnered with the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) to enable UPI-based digital payments across the lender's network in the state, in order to accelerate financial inclusion in rural areas.
The rollout will cover over 21,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), 31 District Central Co-operative Banks (DCCBs), and 55 MSCB branches, bringing QR-based UPI payment acceptance to farmers, traders, and small merchants at no additional cost, the two entities said in a statement.
MSCB, considered the largest state cooperative bank in India, currently handles an annual business volume of about Rs 62,000 crore, a significant portion of which is expected to shift to digital transactions.
The partnership comes amid a broader push by regulators and institutions, such as NABARD and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to digitize cooperative banks.
"We are proud to partner with Maharashtra's apex cooperative bank, providing a UPI acquiring stack that reaches 21,214 village-level societies. Thousands of small, local merchants will now have access to a seamless digital banking experience comparable to that offered by leading private sector banks," said Kunal Jhunjhunwala, founder, Airpay Payment Services.
MSCB Chairman Vidyadhar Anaskar described the initiative as a step towards integrating over 21,000 village-level societies into the national digital payments grid, positioning the cooperative network as a key player in the digital economy.
The bank is targeting 11-15 crore digital transactions annually, with projected business volumes of around Rs 1.2 lakh crore through digital channels, bringing its scale closer to that of a mid-sized public sector bank.
The rollout is aligned with the government's push to digitize the cooperative sector under the Ministry of Cooperation and complies with RBI guidelines on digital payments and KYC norms.