Remember the humble postman who was the single-point contact of remote villages of Bharat with the rest of the world in the pre-globalisation India, circa 1991?
Financial services major Paytm may now be following a similar model. The Paytm Payments Bank — India’s first bank providing zero balance accounts and zero charges on digital transactions — plans to train and fan out one lakh banking business correspondents, including women, in a year across Tier-I and -II towns, villages and remote areas. They will function as ‘mobile banking agents’ to the unbanked people.
“They will be equipped with smartphones, biometric devices, and banking apps, among others, to reach out to the unbanked people. They will receive and disburse money like any bank’s branch, and provide basic banking services,” Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice-President, Paytm, told
Last year, Paytm Payments Bank launched “Paytm Ka ATM” outlets across India that allows customers to open saving accounts and deposit/withdraw money.
Abbot said Paytm currently has 20 crore customers and has evolved as a full-stake payments provider by offering multi-source and multi-destination solutions. “We plan to process ₹60,000 crore in monthly bank transfers by the end of this year. We are also planning to invest ₹500 crore in Paytm’s core business — promoting bank transfers and building new products — and hope to increase the number of transactions from a billion to two billion each quarter.”
It currently has 10 crore KYC-compliant users and 3.5 crore savings accounts.
Recently, it initiated Paytm AshaKiran to empower rural women by educating them about financial services and creating job opportunities. In the first year, it plans to train one million women through workshops across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Renu Satti, Managing Director and CEO, said.