Paytm Payments Bank to launch today in Noida

paytm payment bank

 

paytm-bank

 

Paytm will be launching its payment bank at Noida on 23 May 2017. It is expected to grow to 31 branches across the country in its first year itself. The company has also said that in this period it would try and build 3000 customer service points. Customers who deposit INR 25,000 in the payment bank would be given cash-back of INR 250. Paytm Payments Bank is supposed to receive investments worth INR 400 crore in the first couple of years itself. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of One97 Communications, is said to own 51% shares of the new bank. This ownership is as per regulatory rules and regulations. The remaining shares are owned by One97 Communications as well.

Investments in the new bank

Together Sharma and One97 have invested INR 220 crore in the payments bank. One97 is the parent company of Paytm, a major player in the digital payments market of India. Now as a result of the opening of the payment bank the mobile wallet business is expected to be transferred to the payments bank. In fact, the customers have been informed of the same as well. This would enable them to discontinue their existing service with a communication regarding their decision to the company. This will have to be done before the launch though.

The first phase

In the first phase accounts can only be opened on the basis of invitation. In this stage customers will mainly be invited from northern India. The investments in the first couple of years are supposed to be used in order to expand their network around India. By 2020 Paytm is expecting to have 500 million customers. In the second phase – the first phase will focus on Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) – the services will be started in the other top metros of India.

Delay

The payment banking service – known legally as Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) – comes after a substantial amount of delay. This happened because Reserve Bank of India (RBI) only provided it the necessary license a few days back. In fact, the project has been delayed by a year. Right now the mobile wallet business has 218-220 million users. Regarding the business transfer, if users do not wish to continue with the new payment bank they can inform Paytm regarding their decision. Once they share their bank details with these people Paytm will be transferring their existing balance to those accounts. In cases where there has been no account activity in the last six months the transfer will happen only when the user gives his agreement to the same.

Some crucial details

Apart from the 220 million-odd customers Paytm also has 5 million offline merchants. Over the next five years the investors are planning to put in around 1.6 billion dollars in the enterprise. The main investors may be mentioned over here:

  • Softbank
  • Alibaba
  • Ant Financial
  • Intel Capital
  • K2 Global
  • Mountain Capital
  • Ratan Tata
  • SAIF Partners
  • Sapphire Ventures
  • Silicon Valley Bank
  • MediaTek

After Airtel and India Post it happens to be third payment bank in the country.