SUMMARY
Paytm Payments Bank Aims To Create 10K Offline Consumer Touchpoints In Next 3 Years
Paytm Payments Bank has committed to invest $466.5 Mn (INR 3000 Cr) in next three years to create a network of 10K offline consumer banking touchpoints.
The aim is to expand its offline distribution network by allowing trusted local partners to act as potential cash-in and cash-out points and other related banking activities. The announcement came in just a week after launching the banking process formally and announcing an investment of $500 Mn in KYC (Know Your Customer) operations.
The payments bank is trying to rope in retail shops and mom-and-pop stores to act like its local banking touchpoints. These shops will function as an ATM and a consumer can both deposit and withdraw the money from his savings account.
Also, they will take in requests for the opening of new savings account in the Paytm Payments bank and link their Aadhaar details to their Paytm accounts.
“These specially branded outlets will play a key role in bringing banking access to smaller cities and towns by ensuring customers find it easy to locate points near them,” said Paytm Payments Bank in a statement.
Recently, 3000 such outlets known as ‘Paytm ka ATM’ were launched in Delhi/ NCR, Lucknow, Allahabad, Aligarh, Varanasi and Kanpur. Also,the firm is introducing a dedicated ‘Bank’ section on the Paytm app where one can access an entire range of banking services including payments, digital debit card, passbook, help, and support among others.
As stated by Renu Satti, Managing Director and CEO, Paytm Payments Bank, “The Paytm Ka ATM banking outlets is our step towards ensuring every Indian has access to banking facilities. We believe this hyperlocal model of banking will play a crucial role in enabling hundreds of millions of under-served and un-served customers to gain access to quality banking services.”
Also, recently, Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications and Vijay Shekhar Sharma together invested $18.84 Mn (INR 122 Cr) in Paytm Payments Bank. This takes their total infusion in the payments bank to $61.78 Mn (INR 400 Cr).
Earlier, in January this year, Airtel Payments Bank also committed $440 Mn (INR 3000 Cr) to develop a pan-India banking network and digital Airtel Bank becomes the first payments bank in the country to go live.payments ecosystem.
Airtel Payments Bank was the first digital bank to go live in India and is using Airtel retail outlets as consumer touch points for its banking activities. As shared by the company in an earlier statement, Airtel Bank will have a network of 250,000 banking points (Airtel retail stores) across 29 states from day one. This is more than the total number of ATMs in the country. Also, it will develop a nation-wide digital payments ecosystem with over five million merchants, wherein over one million merchants are already onboard. During the pilot phase, the bank claims to have added over 1 Mn customers.
The other two operational payment banks include India Post Payments Bank and Fino Payments Bank. However, so far none of them has been able to attract too much attention.
Nevertheless, Paytm Payments Bank under the leadership of Renu Satti and Vijay Shekhar Sharma is continuously building up new milestones. With strategies such as zero charges on all online transactions and no minimum balance requirement plus a bit higher interest rate on savings account,and fixed deposits, Paytm Payments Bank is on the road to lure customer to its way, and is currently building grounds to offer financial products such as insurance, loans, mutual funds etc in near future.
