THE Reserve Bank has asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to examine the possibility of migrating Paytm Payments Bank customers using the UPI handle ‘@paytm’ to 4-5 other banks, in a bid to prevent any disruptions in the payment ecosystem. On Friday, the Central bank came out with additional steps for the benefit of customers, wallet holders and merchants who are availing banking services from Paytm Payments Bank, which has been barred from accepting deposits and credits after March 15, 2024. As per the website of Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL), it has 30 crore wallets and 3 crore bank customers. NPCI, an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of RBI and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for creating a payment and settlement infrastructure in India.

 

As the PPBL cannot accept further credits into its customer accounts and wallets after March 15, 2024, certain additional steps have become necessary to ensure seamless digital payments by UPI customers using ‘@paytm’ handle operated by the bank, and minimise concentration risk in the UPI system by having multiple payment app providers, the RBI said in a statement. “NPCI has been advised by the RBI to examine the request of One97 Communication Ltd (OCL) to become a Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) for UPI channel for continued UPI operation of the Paytm app, as per the norms,” it said. One97 Communications Ltd (OCL), which owns the Paytm brand, holds a 49 per cent stake in PPBL. RBI further said that in the event of NPCI granting TPAP status to OCL, it may be stipulated that ‘@paytm’ handles are to be migrated in a seamless manner from PPBL to a set of newly identified banks to avoid any disruption.