Digital payment platform Paytm is looking to cross-sell banking products through its payments bank. The payments bank is expected to be rolled out around Diwali or “October-end”.
According to Ruchita Taneja Aggarwal, Vice-President - Business, Paytm Payments Bank, it is already in advanced talks with banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions to extend such products. She, however, did not elaborate on the names or type of products that were being explored.
Because payments banks cannot lend, it is expected that cross-selling banking products will be a revenue stream. According to the RBI guidelines, these niche banks can issue ATM/debit cards, but not credit cards; payments and remittance services through various channels; BC of another bank and distribution of non-risk sharing simple financial products (like mutual fund and insurance products).
“We are open for partnerships and are in very advanced stages for integration of financial services. But, I can assure you that we are going beyond traditional business models (for the payments bank),” she said on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event here on Friday.
Three of the 11 primary licence recipients (for payments bank) have already opted out of the fray. And, this has led to questions surrounding the viability. According to Aggarwal, the bank will target an “increased velocity of transactions” and data analytics as mainstays for its business. And, it will also look to cater to the “un-banked and under-banked”.
While the payments bank will have a “physical access points”, 25 per cent of such points will be spread across Tier-V and Tier-VI towns. Aggarwal did not specify if these access points will be a branch or kiosk or in any other format.
Paytm, currently has 135 million users across 20 cities (mostly Tier-I and Tier-II) on its digital platform. There are nearly 800,000 outlets that use the payment platform which include ‘kirana’ shops to auto-rickshaws, taxis and others.
“We intend to take this number to a million (10,00,000) shortly,” she said adding that the company was looking to further its reach in smaller towns and rural areas.