One97, Vijay Shekhar Sharma infuse Rs 122 Cr in Paytm Payment Bank

One97 Communications, the owner of Paytm and its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma have together invested Rs 122 crore in Paytm Payments Bank, taking their total fund infusion to Rs 400 crore as of date.

Company’s CEO Sharma has put in Rs 62 crore while one97 Communications and One97 communications India have pumped in the rest amount. As many as 121,990,000 equity shares were allotted to existing shareholders, the filing stated, according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies, reported TOI.

Paytm and its shareholders poured in Rs 60 crore to boost its Payments Bank service in September, this year.

The Noida-based firm, which is run by One97 Communications, created two separate entities - Paytm E-commerce and Paytm Payments Bank. The board of Paytm Payments Bank was launched in May and started its operations offering an interest rate of 4 percent.

Sharma holds the majority share in Payments Bank arm (51 percent), with the rest being held by Alibaba-backed One97 Communications. However, the Chinese entity does not have a direct shareholding in the payments bank.

Earlier, this month, the digital payments firm Paytm integrated BHIM UPI, the government-owned mobile payments interface, onto its platform as it looks to double its monthly user base over the next two years. It also migrated 170 million (17 crores) digital wallets to its payment bank and aims to reach 500 million account mark by 2020.

The Paytm Payments bank offers an interest of 4 per cent per annum for savings accounts, which is lower than what Airtel and India Post are offering. Airtel offers the highest interest rates of 7.25 per cent, while India Post is offering interest rates between 4.5-5.5 per cent.

Fino Payments Bank, which started its banking operations in July with 410 branches and 25,000 access points, also aims to make banking easy for millions of underbanked people in India.

Besides the four, Aditya Birla Nuvo and Reliance Industries are also set to launch payments bank operations soon.

However, the four payments banks have seen customers put in only Rs 236.45 crore into their accounts as on September 30, the report said, with Rs 224 crore deposited with Airtel Payments Bank alone.

Last year, the Reserve Bank of India had allowed 11 entities, including Paytm for setting up payments bank operations with the objective of deepening financial inclusion in the country.

The Softbank-funded company is also planning to offer loan service by partnering with full-service banks. In April this year, Paytm had partnered with gold refiner MMTC-PAMP to launch ‘Digital Gold’ that will allow customers to buy and sell gold through the electronic platform.

The company launched an interest-free short-term loan product – Paytm-ICICI Bank Postpaid last week.