In Brief
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Paytm, a leading Indian financial services firm, has received regulatory approval to resume onboarding new UPI users, following an eight-month restriction on many of its operations.
United Payments Interface (UPI) is a real-time, instant payment system developed by the Indian government, and it processes over 15 billion transactions a month, dominating India’s online payments landscape.
Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay process about 87% of UPI transactions in the country, whereas Paytm’s market share has shrunk from 13% to 8% after the Indian central bank imposed restrictions on the company’s operations.
The Reserve Bank of India in March ordered Paytm to stop operating several businesses at its banking subsidiary, which the company used for UPI payments, citing repeated violation of rules.
NPCI, the regulatory body that oversees UPI, approved Paytm’s application to resume operations at the subsidiary on Tuesday.
Analysts at Bernstein and Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday the approval is a “significant” development that will help revive the growth of Paytm’s transacting user base. Paytm’s monthly transacting users fell to 68 million last month from 100 million in December 2023.
Paytm on Tuesday reported revenue of $197.4 million in the second quarter ended September, a 34% decline from revenue of $299.5 million a year earlier. Still, this was a decent uptick for the company compared to its first-quarter revenue of $178.6 million.
Profit in the second quarter climbed to $110 million.
Source: Techcrunch
