 "Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm Founder")
Paytm chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has held talks with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to discuss regulatory concerns and know if the company can transfer its wallet business and electronic toll collection system FASTag, said two sources on Tuesday, days after the regulator imposed curbs on the fintech giant’s banking affiliate.
The banking regulator told Paytm Payments Bank last Wednesday to stop accepting new deposits in its accounts and digital wallets from March 1, citing supervisory concerns and non-compliance with rules.
“The biggest question currently is whether Paytm Payments Bank can transfer its wallets and FASTags. The company has not received an answer on it yet. If there’s clarity on the same, the company will be able to mitigate things faster,” a source said.
The RBI has barred Paytm Payments Bank from taking further deposits or making credit transactions or top-ups in customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, and National Common Mobility Card cards from March 1. Paytm Payments has more than 300 million wallets and 30 million bank accounts, as per the company's website.
It claims to have issued over eight million FASTag units to date. The platform has processed over 57.91 million FASTags transactions in terms of volume in December 2023, data from National Payments Corporation of India shows.
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Paytm didn’t respond to Business Standard’s email for comments. Shares of One97 Communications, the company’s parent, ended with gains after a three-day rout. Its stock ended at Rs 452.8, up 3.3 per cent over its previous day’s close. Shares worth Rs 2,775 crore were traded on the NSE.
In the past three trading sessions, shares of the digital payments major crashed 42.4 per cent and saw a market cap erosion of more than Rs 20,000 crore.
Earlier, One97 Communications denied reports that Jio Financial Services was in talks with it to acquire Paytm Payments Bank’s wallet business. In an exchange filing Monday, Jio Financial Services too denied talks with Paytm.
On Monday, media reports claimed that Jio Financial Services and HDFC Bank were frontrunners to buy Paytm's wallet business.
Earlier this week, Paytm denied reports about investigation or violation of foreign exchange rules by the company or its associate Paytm Payments Bank. Media reports quoting sources claimed that the Enforcement Directorate was investigating if platforms run by One97 Communications were involved in violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
