Paytm, the mobile payment and ecommerce platform, has tied up with ICICI Bank to launch a co-branded virtual prepaid card.
The card will be linked to a user’s Paytm wallet allowing them to pay to a much larger set of merchants. Apart from the virtual card, the company also plans to issue a physical card to a select set of customers who can use it at any merchant who accepts Credits/Debit/Prepaid cards payment.
In addition, Paytm enables its users to add money to their mobile wallets through cash deposits at all ICICI bank branches. This service specifically helps customers who might not own Credit/Debit cards or Net Banking facilities, but want to access the facilities offered by Paytm nonetheless. This feature is available to all Paytm users, including non-ICICI Bank customers as well.
According to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paytm, this partnership will give ‘universal access’ to all Paytm customers allowing them to shop at any retail outlet that accepts credit, debit and prepaid cards. “Through this 16-digit, Paytm-ICICI Bank co-branded virtual prepaid card, our customers can shop at any retail outlet that accepts Visa, MasterCard and Rupay”, he further added.
Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director at ICICI Bank said that the additional service of loading money into Paytm wallets at over 4000 bank branches is going to be another initiative to help make the usage of electronic payments in the country more popular.
Paytm is also working on its payment banking services which is supposed to start operations from next year.
The mobile payment and ecommerce platform currently has a user base of more 100 Mn.
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