Paytm Payments Bank Ltd, a unit of One97 Communications Ltd, has said it will soon go live on the unified payments interface (UPI) platform.
The move to UPI will allow customers to transact using a virtual payment address issued by the payments bank.
“We will soon enable seamless creation of UPI IDs on our platform so that users can send and receive money to each other, and for merchant payments,†said Paytm Payments Bank chief executive Renu Satti.
The Paytm wallet had earlier claimed to have over 220 million customers on its platform. However, following the transition as a payments bank, its customer base is not known. “Our significant consumer base makes us well-positioned to become a large issuer of UPI handles, driving its adoption in the country,†Satti added.
The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm Payments Bank went live exactly a month ago and plans to expand its presence through 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in the first year.
UPI transactions have grown significantly since it was launched in August 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India. Transactions on the platform hit 6.9 million in April, against 6.2 million in March 2017. However, in terms of value, it witnessed a 8% fall from Rs 2,390 crore in March to Rs 2,200 crore in April. Since December, UPI transaction volumes are up 252%.
The government-backed Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), which has been downloaded over 20 million times since December, accounts for nearly 40% of all UPI transactions. The government had also launched UPI-based merchant interface app BHIM-Aadhar in April.
As of today, almost all banks and payment gateways support UPI.