Paytm has, since November 8, been on an overdrive, rolling out a series of features on its app including multi-language options for a no-holds barred access across the country. The company is now planning to make Paytm available on all types of mobile phones, going much beyond smartphones.
It's mid-morning and the two-kilometre stretch from Rashbehari Avenue to Gariahat Market is bustling with activity. Dotted with saree shops and hawker stalls that sell everything, from hairpins, hangers and towels to hosiery, mobile phone covers and kurtas, this is one of South Kolkata's busiest shopping areas. And it is beginning to wake up to the Paytm crisis.
Payment apps PhonePe and Paytm have helped citizens avert potential financial frauds worth Rs 200 crore by using the fraud risk indicator platform developed by the Department of Telecom, a senior Walmart group official said on Wednesday.
The Chinese financial giant, which had invested in One 97 Communications since 2015, has seen a sharp decline of 45 per cent, or Rs 2,125 crore, in its stake value since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took action against Paytm Payments Bank on January 31. One 97 shares closed at Rs 422.6 a share on Monday. The Chinese company, however, had sold its stake worth Rs 8,293 crore in three tranches over one year.
HDFC Bank has been conscious in not accepting high-cost deposits, which have resulted in slower growth in October-December, said Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive officer, during an interaction with Goldman Sachs recently. He said during times of tight liquidity, short terms hardened, as was the case in October-December. "Not only did we participate, but we also gave up which came up for maturity," he said.
In the backdrop of the crisis brewing at Paytm Payments Bank, major fintech companies are ramping up their workforce and inducting new faces in their leadership teams, industry sources said on Wednesday. Users will not be able to add funds to their Paytm Payments Bank Wallet after February 29, though they will still be able to use the services and the existing balance in the wallets, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) diktat. Industry sources said that competitors to Paytm are investing heavily in offline payments while doubling their salesforce.
Kapoor and his associate entities owned 10.6 per cent in the bank at the end of June 2019.
Senior bankers point out that while they will eventually attract qualified professionals, onboarding them takes time.
Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm may deliberately delay transactions, issue fraud alerts, and require an extra layer of user confirmation before processing any transactions that are likely to be classified as fraudulent.
Paytm plans to launch mutual funds, insurance and banking services and s also providing the option to transact offline with a physical debit card
This is the second instance of mainstream banks blocking services to new-age digital payments companies.
With duties at 15%, GST at 3%, and making charges running as high as 20% -- the gap between a smart purchase and a careless one can easily be Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 on every Rs 1 lakh invested. And most of that gap is entirely avoidable. Ramalingam Kalirajan explains the math.
The message is clear: The 60-year-old wise uncles need to handhold the 40-year-old entrepreneurs when, obsessed with ambition and greed for growth, they become a victim of hubris, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
According to sources, the postal bank will tie up with other banks and financial companies to offer products like loans, mutual funds, and insurance policies to its customers.
Start-ups don't care that mad-money funding comes to a hard stop after an IPO, observes Debashis Basu. As a listed entity, corporate actions have to take the interests of all shareholders, especially minority shareholders, into account. So far, we are not seeing any sign of it, observes Debashis Basu.
Some of the fintechs that will get impacted include Cred, Paytm, Phonepe and Amazon Pay, among others.
What explains Vijay Shekhar Sharma's optimism when other players have started to tread cautiously is Paytm's huge customer base: It has 120 million users and counting, says Nivedita Mookerji.
As it readies for its initial public offering (IPO) later this year, digital payments firm Paytm is honing its strengths to remodel itself from being a payment wallet to becoming a financial services provider, and is working towards narrowing its losses, evident from its most recent Annual Report. Unlike many of its peers, Paytm has started expanding its merchant payment ecosystem. It has realised that though it can take the maximum share of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transactions, from a revenue generation point of view it will not have any impact.
Looking to regain lost ground in the credit cards segment, HDFC Bank on Monday announced a tie-up with leading payments company Paytm to start selling co-branded plastics before the onset of the festive season. The credit cards will be powered by Visa and will include offerings targeted at millennials, business owners and merchants, an official statement said. Paytm has a reach of over 330 million consumers and 21 million merchants, while HDFC Bank has over 5 million debit, credit and prepaid cards, and serves 2 million merchants through its offerings.
'We went from zero to about 10 million users in three months. Paytm came out with the wallet play and we came out with the UPI play.'
Paytm had received the approval for brokerage services from market regulator Sebi in January this year.
Paytm, which recently hived off its e-commerce and payments bank businesses into separate companies, would use these fresh funds to bolster the two businesses
Many high-profile IPOs in India since 2021 have destroyed investor wealth due to overvaluation, weak business models, and post-listing disinterest, turning 1 lakh investments into as little as 3,500.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked fintech firms to focus on risk management at a time when criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create lifelike videos to manipulate people.
Why is the RBI harsh on Paytm Payments Bank? Why did it give Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank Ltd such a long rope?Often, it's a long investigation process, but the RBI doesn't discuss this openly since that can threaten financial sector stability, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The mobile wallet player plans to add more Chinese sellers to its e-commerce platform and boost technology for its soon-to-be-launched payments bank
Key questions remain about the operational and financial viability of a completely paperless bank such as India Post, says Mayank Jain.
Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, once hailed as rising stars in India's clean energy sector, are now facing serious regulatory action.
The last few months have been hard on digital wallets which had a short-lived dream run post-demonetisation.
'The committee has been constituted. Different government departments and FSDC members are part of it.'
Paytm's pre-IPO investors, which include likes of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathway, SoftBank and Alibaba, do not seem to be in a hurry to exit India's leading digital payments brand as they continue to believe in its long-term prospect, analysts said. On Tuesday, 86 per cent of Paytm's shares became free to trade after the end of the lock-in period, allowing investors to sell shares that haven't yet been allowed onto the market. Market participants have been speculating on Paytm, post-expiry of lock-in for pre-IPO investors.
Major credit issuers, including the largest - HDFC Bank - have integrated their systems with the Bharat Bill Payment Systems (BBPS) for receiving credit card repayments via third-party applications.
Since Sanjay Malhotra took office as governor in December, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has adopted a more accommodative stance, which bodes well for banking and the economy as they navigate a growth slowdown, according to analysts.
After a gruelling 24 hours, the PhonePe team has fully restored UPI on the payment platform. The app is up and running again with ICICI Bank as its new partner with all payment instruments enabled.
Fintech giant Paytm claimed it is selling more FASTags than all the banks put together on a daily basis.
The Indian Post Payments Bank will be a boon to Indians who live in rural areas. India has 154,000 post offices, of which 139,000 are rural.
Using the app, bank transfers can be done from/to any bank account, making it easier to make payments at no charge. Even non-KYC Paytm users can avail the facility.
Mobile wallet adoption is surging in India and swiftly becoming a primary payment option, surpassing traditional methods like cash and cards. Over the next few years, payments via mobile wallets in India are likely to surpass the Rs 531.8 trillion mark in 2028, witnessing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.3 per cent between 2024 and 2028, according to GlobalData - a London-based leading data and analytics company. The value of mobile wallet payments in India, as per a GlobalData report, grew at a CAGR of 72.1 per cent between 2019 and 2023 to reach Rs 202.8 trillion ($2.5 trillion) in 2023.
Sources close to the development told Business Standard the company was exploring different ways to save on its employee costs and had laid off a few employees on "performance" grounds. "We will see a similar development for the next few months. "The company is fine-tuning its hiring policies and implement rigourous measures to look into employee performance," a source said.
