Update: Bharti Airtel has responded after the Bombay Stock Exchange, where the company is listed, sought a clarification on the news report. In its response to the BSE the company said, "Airtel Payments Bank Limited in the ordinary course of its business appoints various retailers, distributors and when necessary terminates such retailer and distributors for various reasons." Accordingly the Payments Bank has from time to time, terminated certain retailers "for reasons including delinquency, performance and other contractual reasons," the company added. The vague response does not make any mention of the issues that led to its e-KYC license getting suspended. Earlier: Airtel Payments Bank has reportedly terminated relationships with over 1,000 retailers for not following the proper process while signing up customers. The Economic Times reports that this development comes after the telecom carrier conducted an internal investigation to find the lapses that led to its Aadhaar-based e-KYC licence getting suspended. When reached out, an Airtel spokesperson had declined to comment on the issue to MediaNama. The report states that the company has levied a penalty of around 50 times the commission paid on several retailers who violated the guidelines for the first time and removed repeat offenders from the network besides imposing a fine on them. The telecom major had launched the probe after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in mid-December suspended Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank from conducting Aadhaar-based verification of customers. This was due to complaints that the telecom company had used the Aadhaar-eKYC based…
