We will add some Paytm's customers: PhonePe co-founder & CEO Sameer Nigam

PhonePe will add a proportionate share of customers to its user base in situations where its competitors are at a loss, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Sameer Nigam, said on Monday.

Nigam was in conversation with Shradha Sharma, founder and CEO, YourStory at the Mumbai Tech Week 2024. He was responding to an audience question on how the company was looking to attract customers from competitors such as Paytm, which is currently facing scrutiny from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

“On attracting rival customers, when there is a loss, we get a proportionate share (of customers). One will call me a hypocrite if I say we won’t get any of them (Paytm Payments Bank customers). If I said, I’ll try to get them all, you will call me an opportunist. I’ll just say, some of them will come,” he explained.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had barred Paytm Payments Bank from most operations, including taking deposits and fund transfers, in an order issued last month.

Nigam said that the regulator’s actions could be proportionate to the lack of compliance.

“I think there was ample time for the company to have acted or responded. I can only go by what it seems that actions are proportionate to the lack of compliance seems about right, and I'm very curious. You guys are reading as much as I'm reading. I don't have any inside information,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nigam touched upon the challenge of ‘information asymmetry,’ explaining that companies may not have all the details on things that might have gone wrong.

“There are certain things where I have information asymmetry. While the RBI lets the industry lead on the innovation side, on other fronts, such as, for example, on a macroeconomic level whether it is the Chinese lending apps getting banned, the regulator and the government have more data than I do,” he said.

He further added, “I don't have all the details, unfortunately. All the details are not published on the website. This includes how many wallets were lacking KYC and what not,” he added.

In November last year, PhonePe said it has crossed 500 million lifetime registered users on its platform. With this milestone, 1 in 3 Indians are now on PhonePe.