Mobile commerce and payments company Paytm today said that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has finally given permission to launch Paytm Payments Bank – the first in India was Airtel in November, which is running a pilot in Rajasthan. Paytm was one of the companies granted approval to launch a payments bank in 2015, and it had been targeting a Diwali launch but missed its deadline a couple of times.
Today Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma confirmed that the company has received permission to formally launch its payments bank. However, he did not mention the exact date of the launch of its payments bank.
Paytm, which was launched three years ago on this day today, as a mobile wallet is now aiming to build a new business model in banking industry, focussed on bringing financial services to hundreds of millions of un-served or underserved Indians, Vijay Shekhar Sharma said.
“Today, Paytm has become the category leader and changed the way India pays. From villages to cities, from corner vegetable stalls to milk booths, small shops to large retailers, everyone embraced the new way to pay by Paytm. Now, we are embarking on a new and even more exciting journey,” he added.
“With power of technology and innovation-at-scale, we aim to become a benchmark in world of banking.” he said
He also wrote that he intends to take a full time executive role in the bank. Paytm also announced the integration of the UPI as a payment channel to recharge its wallet balance. This means that you could theoretically recharge your Paytm Wallet with the BHIM app. Of course, that money now won’t have to be transferred to a bank account – Paytm had earlier announced that it’s going to merge its Wallet and Payments Bank, so your wallet balance will become your bank balance.