Paytm Payments Bank books Rs 30-cr loss in 7 months

The company plans to expand to 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points by end of first year

Paytm Payments Bank incurred losses of Rs 30.7 crore between August 2016 and March 2017 of FY17, the firm has said in its filing to Registrar of Companies (RoC). The company, however, is not considering this as losses but as operational costs, as it happened before the payments bank started operations in May.

The company also made revenue of Rs 2.4 crore during this period. According to company sources, investments are being made to expand the payments bank business, hire more banking correspondents as well as open new branches.

The payments bank opened its first branch in Noida. The first branch in the Northeast would be opened in Guwahati.

The company plans to expand to 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points by the end of the first year. Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had earlier told Business Standard that in the first phase, the bank would have around 100,000 banking correspondents.

“In the first phase, we are targeting as many as 200 million wallets, current and savings accounts. While normal banks target savings and current accounts, we will target the wallets as well,” he had said. Sharma and parent company One97 Communications recently poured in Rs 60 crore more into the payments bank. It had invested about Rs 220 crore in the payments bank.

The company is setting up Know-Your-Customer centres across the country. The bank would offer current accounts to its 6 million online and offline merchants as well. It plans to open 500 million accounts by 2020. 

“Leveraging the power of technology, we aim to become the preferred bank for 500 million by 2020,” said Renu Satti, chief executive officer, Paytm Payments Bank.

Eleven applicants had received payments bank licenses from the Reserve Bank of India. After the initial euphoria, three recipients withdrew applications. However, Paytm hopes to make it one of the biggest businesses in its portfolio and the second-largest revenue earner after wallets.