This Diwali, Paytm is planning to launch payment bank for which it is adding a sum of Rs. 350 crore to the service. Paytm became one of the eleven companies to receive a license for payment bank last year.
Paytm has partnered with Infosys to use its Finacle platform for the payments bank. The company also plans to eventually branch out to selling other financial services such as insurance and mutual funds to its payment bank customers for which it is looking at various financial service providers for potential partnerships. Paytm also plans to address the issue of lack of ATMS in remote areas by creating a service similar to debit cards. The company is supposedly in talks with banks and ATM providers to see this through.
Speaking on the investments CEO of Paytm’s payment bank, Shinjini Kumar, said “Our plans show this initial capital is adequate for rolling out a payments bank as we are not looking to open too many branches in one go. We have got separate solutions to address urban and rural consumers as both have different sets of challenges.”
Kumar further stressed on the need of ensuring a strong and secure system to prevent issues of money laundering and fraud.
When it comes to payment bank, the service was introduced by the RBI last year in a supposed effort to include rural areas and poorer population into financial scenario by being able to reach them through cell phones instead of bank branches. Tech Mahindra and IDFC Bank were among the 11 companies that were issued a license for payment bank.
