Paytm Payments Bank Continues To Lead Beneficiary Banks On UPI

Paytm Payments Bank said that it maintained its lead as the largest beneficiary bank on the unified payments interface (UPI) platform with 430.04 Mn transactions in April 2021, even though the transaction went down 8% compared to 469.8 Mn processed in March 2021. The fall in transaction processed by Paytm Payments Bank was in alignment with the overall fall in UPI transactions in the month of April as several states went under lockdown.

In April 2021, UPI transactions fell by 3% — from 2.73 Bn transactions in March, it went down to 2.64 Bn in April 2021. The transaction value of UPI payments has also decreased by 2% — from INR 5.04 Lakh Cr to INR 4.93 Cr in the same time period. PhonePe led the third-party apps by processing 44% or 1.18 Bn of all transactions in the month of April. It was followed by Google Pay and Paytm with 34% (905 Mn), and 12% (320 Mn) share in the overall transactions respectively.

Paytm Payments Bank attributes its growth to increasing merchant payments and adoption across small cities and towns. The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company was the only beneficiary bank that was able to cross the milestone of 400 Mn monthly transactions. It was followed by State Bank of India (SBI) with 396.30 transactions, YES Bank with 359.78 transactions, ICICI Bank with 248.8 Mn transactions and Axis Bank with 221.81 Mn transactions.

Paytm Payments Bank has also been gaining traction as a remitter bank, maintaining its position at the fifth spot with 164.47 Mn transactions in April. Compared to March, the UPI transaction as a remittance bank fell 5% from 173 Mn transaction reported in March. SBI led the UPI transaction among remitters banks with 755 Mn transactions in the same month, followed by HDFC Bank with 231.5 Mn transactions.

Besides this, the Paytm Payments Bank also continued to outperform other beneficiary banks in terms of the success rate of UPI transactions, attributing its in-house technology that ensures “fastest payments and highest success rates”. The company notes that since other banks rely on third-party apps to drive their UPI transaction, they have a higher technical decline of around 1%.

The company had facilitated 975 Mn digital transactions in the month of March, across all its services including Paytm Wallet, Paytm FASTag, Paytm UP and internet banking. It had also achieved an all-time high monthly target by opening over 1 Mn new savings and current accounts, propelling the total number of bank accounts to 64 Mn.