Airtel Payments Bank’s ‘Safe Second Account’ urges digital caution

When it comes to money, Indians have long been creatures of habit. We still keep emergency cash tucked away, mark wedding gifts in ledgers, and split household expenses with quiet precision. But as digital payments replace physical wallets, these behaviours are colliding with a new kind of anxiety — the fear of losing everything to a single click.

India’s deepfake problem only adds to this unease. What began as harmless social media mischief has turned into a serious national concern spanning business, entertainment and sport. According to pi-labs’ Digital Deception Epidemic: 2024 Report on Deepfake Fraud’s Toll on India, the country has seen a 550% rise in deepfake-linked cybercrime since 2019, with potential losses projected to hit INR 70,000 crore by 2025.

“Deepfakes are no longer just a technical issue; they undermine trust in the information we consume online. Addressing this requires concerted efforts on multiple levels,” says Ankush Tiwari, founder and CEO of pi-labs.ai.

In a country where digital adoption is soaring and scams are multiplying, it’s this very erosion of trust that Airtel Payments Bank (APB) taps into with its latest campaign, Safe Second Account. Launched on 19 September 2025, it doesn’t promise higher returns or quicker payments. It sells something rarer: peace of mind. The message is clear — keep your main savings insulated and use a second, separate account for everyday digital transactions.

Its tagline, ‘Is bank ko aapke paise nahi, aapki safety chahiye’ (This bank doesn’t need your money, just your security), recasts what banking stands for. In a market where every player touts the same trio of speed, security, and savings, APB’s counterintuitive pitch, about not want the customer’s money, is designed to stand out.

The psychology behind a second account

The idea of a ‘safe second account’’ isn’t a marketing gimmick. It stems from observing deeply ingrained Indian money habits. “With over 750 million smartphone users and nearly a billion internet users, India has seen rapid uptake in bank accounts. Yet, modest incomes make even small financial losses hard to bear, leading to deep caution especially with digital payments,” says Pooja Sablok, chief marketing officer at Airtel Payments Bank.

That caution, she adds, has cultural roots. Indian households naturally compartmentalise money, be it one jar for groceries, another for savings, and a third for emergencies. APB’s Safe Second Account simply takes that instinctive practice and digitises it.

“Research reflects an innate consumer fear of losing hard-earned savings due to just one mistake,” says Sablok. “While this need exists, it remains largely untapped and under-acknowledged. The opportunity now is to create and lead this category.”

By positioning the APB account as a separate “spending account”, the campaign reinterprets age-old prudence through a digital lens. It’s a behavioural nudge disguised as a financial innovation.

Turning ‘We don’t want your money’ into strategy

Few financial brands could pull off a line as provocative as ‘We don’t want your money’. But APB insists it’s not a slogan; it’s strategy.

“When we say we don’t want your money, we want your safety, it’s more than a campaign line,” says Sablok. “It reflects our commitment to putting our customers and their peace of mind first.”

The model is built on trust, not accumulation. APB hopes this focus on digital safety will cultivate sustainable engagement and loyalty. The bank’s mobile-first approach, coupled with a zero minimum balance, offers users both flexibility and control, allowing them to move specific amounts into the account for everyday payments while keeping core savings untouched.

APB isn’t sharing numbers, but Sablok confirms “strong traction in digital account openings.” The campaign’s real success, however, will hinge on whether it changes behaviour — persuading Indians to consciously separate daily spends from savings.

Crafting calm in a noisy market

In a category where financial advertising often dazzles with speed, scale and celebrities, APB’s Safe Second Account film takes the opposite route, i.e. restraint. Directed by Ram Madhvani of Equinox Films and conceptualised by Pallavi Chakravarti’s agency Fundamental, the film opens with a woman who does everything right. She avoids sharing OTPs, ignores suspicious calls, and stays alert online. Yet, she still gets duped.

The shock isn’t theatrical, it’s quietly devastating. “Sometimes all you need is the landscape of the human face,” says Madhvani. “When there’s a strong message and insight, it’s best to let the message speak.”

Ram Madhvani founder of Equinox Films (left) at the ad's shoot with the protagonist. 

She deliberately avoided digital razzmatazz. “Though we are using AI for other projects,” she notes, “in this case, you can’t use AI if you’re talking about human safety.”

Shot with minimal embellishment, the ad’s power lies in its authenticity. “It was about calibrating the performance and not revealing where the character is so that the punchline reveal lands as a surprise,” Madhvani explains, crediting cinematographer Kavya Sharma and production designer Anna Ipe for creating a space that feels lived-in rather than staged.

The restraint paid off. “I saw the ad during the India–Pakistan match and it stood out because it avoided all the flashiness,” Madhvani adds.

Challenging the ‘It won’t happen to me’ mindset

The campaign’s emotional spine, says Chakravarti, came from a universal blind spot. “The reality we all operate from is: it won’t happen to me. Until something does,” she says.

Fundamental chose honesty over gimmickry. “No gimmicks, no manufactured emotion, no using a celeb and making a joke that does nothing for the actual task at hand,” Chakravarti explains.

Humour and high gloss dominate financial advertising today, but APB’s choice to keep things grounded — even sobering — feels deliberate. “Losing your life savings to fraud is not a laughing matter,” she adds. “We didn’t see any room for humour here.”

The ad’s tight scripting ensures engagement without indulgence. “The very first line in the spot speaks to how most of us think,” she says. “The ad has been designed to be un-indulgent. It gets to the point quickly and has a twist you likely didn’t see coming.”

Each adaptation, whether for social, outdoor or print, works independently. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Chakravarti says. “The campaign has been efficiently designed to drive home the message across every medium.”

Redefining trust in the BFSI adscape

In a financial sector saturated with reassurance, APB’s quiet storytelling is its rebellion. It stands in contrast to the glossy tropes of smiling customers, frictionless apps, and instant approvals.

“The more real and authentic the tone, the more it rubs off on what APB the brand stands for,” Madhvani says.

That realism extends to the casting — the protagonist is ordinary by design. She could be anyone, which makes her vulnerability, and her mistake, universal.

APB’s message inevitably invites scrutiny: if a second account is “safe,” are primary accounts unsafe? Sablok clarifies that the goal isn’t to question the industry’s digital security but to create an additional psychological buffer.

Pallavi Chakravarti, founder and chief creative officer, Fundamental.

“The Safe Second Account adds a psychological layer of protection for everyday money management,” she says. “It creates a sense of control, security, and clarity, reducing the mental load of managing money while keeping essential funds accessible.”

The campaign reframes financial security as shared responsibility, between technology and human behaviour.

Building habit, not hype

APB isn’t treating this as a one-off awareness effort. “In this evolving digital world, one-off messages aren’t enough,” says Sablok. “The Safe Second Account campaign builds on our ongoing efforts to promote safe banking habits.”

Earlier campaigns in the category often ended at education. This one goes a step further, by offering a tangible behavioural fix. “It empowers users to separate their core savings from everyday spends, turning awareness into daily action,” she says.

The brand plans to reinforce this habit through in-app nudges and continuous messaging, aiming to make vigilance a natural part of digital banking.

While the tech stack is impressive, the real innovation lies in how APB markets caution as a virtue, transforming safety into a differentiator in an industry obsessed with speed.

As Chakravarti puts it, “No one said we don’t want account acquisition. But above all, we want to effect behaviour change. Because the brand is putting the consumer’s safety first.”

A cautious step forward

The Safe Second Account campaign lands at a cultural crossroads: Indians are embracing digital finance like never before, even as fraud grows more sophisticated. By advocating a simple behavioural shift, separating spends from savings, APB is betting on habit formation over hype.

For marketers and agencies, it’s a reminder that in a market of overpromise, restraint can be radical.

At its heart, the campaign isn’t about selling a product but engineering peace of mind — a subtle repositioning of what financial brands can stand for. For APB, the payoff won’t come from how many accounts it opens but from how many mindsets it changes.

In a financial ecosystem obsessed with acceleration, APB’s message is deliberately measured: the safest way forward isn’t to move faster; it’s to move smarter.