Finally, after months of delay and speculation surrounding the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm launching its independent Payments Bank have come to an end. The Reserve Bank of India has granted the company permission to formally announce the launch of its Paytm Payments Bank at last.
Starting off with nostalgia and enthusiasm combined, the blog post reads that the Paytm wallet debuted for the public exactly three years ago on 3rd January 2014. And now the company is finally (after more than a year’s worth of hard work) taking a monstrous step in the direction of financial inclusion of individuals in the country.
Talking about the launch mixed with nostalgia, the official blog post penned by founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, says,
At Paytm Payments Bank, our aim is to build a new business model in banking industry, focussed on bringing financial services to 100’s of millions of un-served or underserved Indians. Withpower of technology and innovation-at-scale, we aim to become a benchmark in world of banking.
In addition, for those unaware, the Payments Bank business of the company has received an investment of more than Rs. 220 crore, out of which nearly 50 percent of the funds have been poured in by Vijay Sharma. Thus, he has decided to lead the next financial revolution of the country. He will now be the chief executive of the Payments Bank as well, says the blog post.
The company has gone through numerous crests and troughs to achieve this milestone. The Payments Bank was initially scheduled to go live sometime around Deepawali but Sharma has then stated that they were waiting for final approval from RBI. It had even signed up Infosys to use its Finacle platform for the payments bank and has since been looking for partners to sell financial services through its platform. This is primary as the payments bank itself isn’t licensed to offer credit to individuals and earn interest on the amount.
In preparation for the launch of its Payments Bank, Paytm had also roped in two Citi Bank executives to fill in primary positions — the head of product development and banking solutions in this spin-off entity. With the launch of the service, the company now plans to sell products such as loans, insurance, and wealth management in order to drive revenues.
The company is also said to be working on a debit card-like service to help users in remote areas can also gain access to the Payments Bank. These are still assumptions and will be cleared up in the coming days as Paytm details the service. We’ve contacted Paytm for more detailed information on the working of the Payments Bank and will update you once we hear back from them.
In August last year, the Reserve Bank of India had granted eleven applicants (out of 41) a license to operate their payments bank service in the country. Airtel, who was one of the recipients of the license, was the very first company to launch its payments bank service earlier this year. Though the telecom giant might have beaten Paytm is making it to the market with its Payments Bank launch in the country but now its biggest competitor has gone live.
Now, Airtel should be worried about its user base and transactions which might diminish under the prominence of Paytm — who already has a much larger user base and transaction value plus volume under its command. Ans since the company had previously said that it now plans to merge its digital wallet with the new payments bank service which has been debuted today.
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