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Paytm Says It Has Got Final RBI Approval To Launch Payments Bank

This will allow the company to offer other financial products and to boost its merchant payment network.
Shailesh Andrade / Reuters

Digital wallet company Paytm is all set to launch its planned payments bank in February, HuffPost India has learned.

On Tuesday, Paytm received the final go-ahead from the Reserve Bank to launch the bank, Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma announced in a blog post.

"At Paytm Payments Bank, our aim is to build a new business model in banking industry, focused on bringing financial services to 100's of millions of un-served or undr-served Indians," Shekhar said.

Paytm received an in-principle nod to launch the bank last year and recently moved its digital wallet business to the payments bank to satisfy certain RBI norms.

The company has already committed an initial investment as Rs 400 crore with Sharma owning the majority stake in the bank, according to media reports. As a payments bank, Paytm will be able to offer financial products such as insurance and loans, and support its payments merchant payment POS network, Sharma has said previously. In general, payments banks are similar to traditional banks, but serve customers mostly through phones, and can offer savings, loan and bill payment products with certain restrictions.

Last month, Paytm launched a mobile-based card swiping feature on its app that allows people to make payments on mobile phones using their cards. Earlier today, it said it will also now support the "Unified Payments Interface" (UPI).

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.