Amazon Pay, Paytm, PhonePe Onboarded As New Shareholders In NPCI

In a move to diversify and distribute its shareholding to a larger set of the RBI regulated entities, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has completed the process of a private placement of 4.63% of its equity shares worth INR 81.64 Cr.

With the expansion, NPCI has got on-board some of the leading banks as well as new categories of few banks including non-bank entities authorised by the RBI. After this shareholding expansion, the total shareholder entities for NPCI has reached 67.

Among those onboarded includes, Amazon Pay, PhonePe and Paytm Payments Bank and PhonePe. 

Besides new-age entities, NPCI has also added Standard Chartered Bank Ltd., Dhanlaxmi Bank Ltd. and IDFC First Bank Ltd. as its shareholders.

As per the shareholding pattern disclosed by NPCI, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank hold the highest stake with 9.15%, whereas Canara Bank holds 8.14% share. Lenders including State Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HSBC and Citibank, each, hold 7.12% stake.

“We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this exercise and the confidence expressed in NPCI’s continued growth and larger purpose. With this we have also broad-based our shareholding to include new categories like Payment Banks, Small Finance Banks and Payment System Operators in addition to existing Public Sector, Private Sector, Foreign, Co-Operative & Regional Rural Banks,” Rupesh H Acharya, Chief of Finance, NPCI, said.

The number of entities in NPCI and their details and shareholding can be seen here.

NPCI is a not-for-profit organisation, and an initiative of the RBI and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). The company currently operates various payment infrastructure including – Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), Bharat BillPay, amongst others.

Last month, UPI-payments in the country crossed the 2 Bn transaction count.

Despite the milestone, NPCI chief executive said that there is still vast room for growth, as more use cases await approval. Asbe added that UPI payments can touch a billion over the next two to three years as new use cases emerge.

NPCI, which recently announced a 30% cap on the total volume of UPI (unified payments interface) transactions through third-party app providers (TPAPs) starting January 2021, is likely to enforce these rules by moderating the onboarding of new customers by these applications when they approach the 30% market share threshold.