Paytm Unveils Payments Bank, Plans To Open 500 Mn Accounts By 2020

Finally, after waiting for one long year Paytm has unveiled its Payments Bank, becoming the third payments bank in the country, after Airtel and India Post.

It will offer customers a 4 percent annual interest rate which the lowest among the three payments banks that is, Airtel offers about 7.3 percent interest and India Post about 5.5 percent annually. Apart from offering its customers cashbacks on deposits, Payment bank will offer zero charges on all online transactions and no minimum balance requirement.

Commenting on the development, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Chairman, Paytm Payments Bank said, “RBI has given us an opportunity to create a new kind of banking model in the world. We are proud that our customer deposits will be safely invested in government bonds, and be used for nation building. None of our deposits will be converted into risky assets”.

Having its first branch in Noida Paytm plans to open 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in a year. The company is setting up KYC centres across India to complete KYC for customers and make them eligible for a Payments Bank account.

Paytm Payments Bank accounts will initially be available on an invite-only basis. In the first phase, the company will roll out its beta banking app for its employees and associates. Paytm customers can request an invite by going to www.PaytmPaymentsBank.com or on the Paytm iOS app.

Every customer to open a Payments Bank account will get a cashback of Rs. 250 as soon they bring deposits of a total of Rs. 25,000 in their bank account. The account will have zero balance requirement and every online transaction (such as IMPS, NEFT, RTGS) will be free of charge. For savings accounts, the company would also offer an interest of 4% per annum. The company will also offer current accounts to its millions of merchants.

“ Our ambition is to become India’s most trusted and consumer-friendly bank. Leveraging power of technology, we aim to become the preferred bank for 500 million Indians by 2020,” said Renu Satti, CEO, Paytm Payments Bank.

Run and operated by One97 Communications, Paytm founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns a majority stake in the company, with the remaining share owned by One97 Communications Pvt Ltd. The Paytm Payments Bank aims to build a new business model in the banking industry that is focused on bringing financial services to hundreds of millions of unserved or underserved consumers across India.

The company is aiming to replicate this success in the banking sector and further drive cashless transactions with the Paytm Payments Bank. The current Paytm Wallet will move to the Paytm Payments Bank in the same capacity, i.e. KYC Wallet as KYC Wallet and minimum detail KYC Wallet as minimum detail KYC Wallet. Users will continue to be able to use their Paytm Wallet in the same manner as before.

Amid Demonetization, PayTM Delists Its App From Apple Play Store

Trying to find PayTM on your iOS device? Well, keep trying but you ain't going to find it. The popular e-wallet app whose popularity grew off the charts after November 8 demonetisation announcement has delisted its iPhone and iPad apps on the Apple’s App Store after it came across some bugs and technical issues.

The latest from the company on the issue is, that it has pushed an update for the app and is just waiting for Apple's approval now.

Enjoying the position of India’s largest mobile wallet app with over 170 million registered users, PayTM was very enthusiastic about the whole demonetisation drive and pledged its support the very next day of the announcement when it printed page long advertisements regarding the same in almost all national newspapers. But, now it seems, the e-wallet app hasn't been successful in managing such a large inflow of new users.

The disappearance of the app from the Apple App Store came just a few hours after the service suffered from an outage on Tuesday. In fact, the service wasn't so smooth for some users even yesterday.

The delisting of the app from the App Store has sent almost everyone in a tizzy as even when an update is awaiting an approval from Apple, the app's older version still remains available in the Apple store for download. So, why did PayTM go with the delisting option is indeed a curios puzzle.

According to company's statement on its blog,"Today we found a bug in our iOS App where certain app users were not able to pay thereby hanging their app. Soon the system logged them out preventing them from further accessing their account."

"We have currently removed the app from the App Store to stop adding incremental new users to our existing base," said a PayTM spokeswoman.

Well, it seems, there's no end to the troubles of the Indian population dealing with the demonetisation surprise sprung on them by the Indian government.

Now Pay at Hindustan Petroleum Pumps With Your Paytm Wallet

Paytm, Indian mobile payments and commerce platform, has created further touch points for cashless transactions by associating with Hindustan Petroleum for its strong user base of 120 million. The company has entered into a strategic partnership with Hindustan Petroleum to allow payments through the Paytm wallet at furl stations. The move eliminates the hassles associated with using cash for paying fuel bills and also further cements Paytm’s stronghold in the digital wallets.

On this announcement, Kiran Vasireddy, Sr. Vice President – Paytm said, “We are on a mission to make payments extremely simple and we are adding as many use cases as possible for users to transact using Paytm. Our partnership with Hindustan Petroleum is crucial in making these petrol pumps become cashless in the next few years. Payments through wallet will not only enhance convenience to customers but will also bring in more operational efficiencies thereby reducing queues at these pumps.”

Enthused with the association, HPCL North Zone Head - Shri Subodh Batra commented, “We are excited about this partnership with Paytm which brings in technology to make payments digitally possible in HPCL Petrol Pumps. Through this seamless operation of payment mechanism, we can foresee faster fuelling at our filling stations. By embracing this technology driven partnership we are confident that it will create a great value addition for customers across demographic profiles."

Hindustan Petroleum has presence in cities across India with over 13,250 filling stations. Currently transactions take place majorly through cash followed by Credit and Debit cards. Payments through Paytm mobile app have the potential to completely take over the traditional transaction options in the coming year.