Demonetisation: Paytm wallet will merge with coming payments bank

New Delhi, Dec 5: The Alibaba-backed digital payments and commerce platform Paytm is transferring its wallet business into the newly created entity for its planned payments bank. This is a mandatory step being followed by the company to fulfil the rules laid out by the Reserve Bank of India. Paytm , which is run by One 97 Communications, has two key businesses--payments business and commerce marketplace. The Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, so far, has got an in-principal approval from the country's central bank for launching a payments bank which is under the name of Sharma. For the commerce business, the company has created another entity--Paytm E-commerce Private Limited.

Paytm spokesperson confirmed the development. "As per the directions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the company would transfer its wallet business to the newly incorporated Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) after receipt of necessary approvals.The transfer will be complete once payment bank licence is obtained," the spokesperson said in an emailed response. The company said the transfer of its wallet business into the payments bank entity is being done with the consent of all shareholders and the board. "The structure was a part of our payment bank application itself when we applied for it in 2014," the statement said.

As per the RBI guidelines, Sharma will have to hold a majority stake of 51%, in the payments bank entity. He has put Rs 112 crore as of now in the entity. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is the largest shareholder in Paytm's holding company One97 Communications with about 40% stake in the parent company.

To be sure, Paytm's payment bank launch has been getting delayed since middle of this year with the company announcing a beta version of payments bank by Diwali this year. "We are working with Fidelity, Infosys and Oracle to deploy a scale-able platform that will be able to meet with the requirements of the bank when it launches. There are no timelines.," the spokesperson said. Telecom major Airtel has already launched their payments bank in Rajasthan. The Noida-based company is also in middle of fresh fund raise to the tune of $250-300 million out of which $60 million has already come into the company's account from Taiwan's Mediatek.