The bank currently has 500 million customers and provides a full suite of payments services and some financial services like accepting deposits and remittances. However, Paytm cannot issue loans, which is the only barrier that separates the payments company from becoming a fully-fledged digital bank.
“We are unveiling our money market fund, launching our debit card and we’ll have the capabilities to allow enterprises to open business accounts,” Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in a phone interview that coincided with Tuesday’s formal inauguration of its payments bank in New Delhi by India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Paytm’s push towards financial services may provide the necessary financial inclusion for about 1.3 billion people or a fifth of India’s population. The pus towards the digitalization of financial services has been a key point of NarendraModi’s government, which aims to broaden banking access to the unbanked.
The service will be the country’s mobile-first bank with zero fee on online transactions and no minimum balance, according to a statement from the company.
Paytm Payments Bank is majority-owned by Sharma. One97 Communications, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding, Ant Financial Services and others, holds the remaining 49%. Paytm started as a digital wallet that became very popular after the demonetization policies in India.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now