Fintech firm Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Thursday in a conference call said that the RBI's order to stop almost all services of Paytm Payments Bank after February 29 is more of a speed bump.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm has said that the company will continue to decline and decrease the dependency on its associate bank and will see through by accelerating its partnership with other banks.
He informed that the company had already started to work with other banks two years back and will now accelerate the plan to move to other bank partners. "These are payment related relationships which means that all banks have necessary technology and capabilities," the CEO stated during a conference call with analysts.
"We are genuinely overwhelmed by the support that we have received from various banks, large banks of this country, and those who are already partners. More regional and large banks have reached out at a very senior level to say that they will be very happy to help us," Vijay added.
"On behalf of Paytm, this is more of a speed bump, but we believe in partnership of the banks and we will be able to see to the same in the next few days," said Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
"One97 Communications Ltd (OCL) already works with various other banks and Paytm Payments Bank was one of the key banks. From here on we are clear we will work with various other banks and not Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL)," said Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
"OCL and PPSL are already in the process of moving nodal accounts to other banks, and marketing business services are not affected due to these directions," Sharma further said.
“OCL and PPSL are already in the process of moving nodal accounts to other banks, and marketing business services are not affected due to these directions,” Vijay Shekhar Sharma further added.
On the issue of Fastag, President and COO Bhavesh Gupta said, "There are a set of products that the Paytm app offers to users, some products like FASTag are already distributed by other banks and will continue."
“We have been working with our various partners. Equity and Insurance are unaffected as they do it independently. Lending has no connection with Paytm Payments Bank,” said Bhavesh Gupta.
“In offline versions, where you see our all-in-one QR, powered by Paytm Payments Bank, now that QR will need to be changed to any other sponsored bank. This will be a large exercise, the new acquisition will immediately start in a week or two,” Bhavesh Gupta noted. "We will ensure the least amount of disturbance to merchants. We will do whatever is the right approach in this matter," he added.
Meanwhile, The Paytm Payment Gateway business (online merchants) will continue to offer payment solutions to its existing merchants.
"OCL's offline merchant payment network offerings like Paytm QR, Paytm Soundbox, Paytm Card Machine, will continue as usual, where it can onboard new offline merchants as well," the filing said.
The RBI also said the 'nodal accounts' of OCL and Paytm Payments Services (PPSL) are to be terminated at the earliest, in any case not later than February 29, 2024. The filing said that OCL and PPSL will move the nodal to other banks during this period.
"OCL will pursue partnerships with various other banks, to offer various payment products to its customers," Paytm said.
Paytm lost a fifth of its market value on Thursday after the central bank ordered its payment bank subsidiary to halt its business, threatening the company's profitability and the app it relies on.
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