A senior company official stated on Sunday that Paytm, a fintech company, is prioritizing investments in its consumer payments division in an attempt to regain lost users as a result of RBI regulatory steps.
Paytm Payments Bank was not allowed to take deposits or process credit transactions in consumer accounts, including prepaid instruments and wallets, according to the RBI.
For Rs 2,048 crore, Paytm sold its ticketing division to foodtech company Zomato in August in order to concentrate more on its main business of distributing financial services and making payments.
“Payments continue to be our main business, with the merchant side performing well. However, we faced a notable decline in our consumer base due to regulatory hurdles. At an interactive event hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) youth division, the Calcutta Chapter of Young Indians, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma stated, “We are dedicated to reinvesting in the consumer payments sector going forward.”
UPI payments are included in consumer payments, whereas merchant-side transactions use QR codes.
According to the company’s available data, there was a sudden drop in monthly transactional users (MTU), declining from 10.4 crore in January to 7.7 crore in May, with the figure slightly rising to 7.8 crore in June.
On the other hand, Paytm experienced growth on the merchant side, with the number of merchants increasing from 79 lakh in the June 2023 quarter to 109 lakh in the June 2024 quarter.
Sharma mentioned that the company is exploring the Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) business model, which focuses on delivering digital payment services to users across different platforms. TPAPs work with banks and financial institutions to facilitate transactions, offering a user-friendly experience for services like UPI payments, bill payments, and other financial transactions.
