[Comrade]

As IT consultant, I had worked for a big bank in the US. It is my impression that banking industry is the most reclutant to make any big IT changes. Compliance and security is top-most priority for them.

PayTm seems to have bypassed quite a few regulations to irk RBI & get completely banned on the PPBL side! I simply love PayTM for their IT features & functionality. So much so that I have 6 cars/fastags, 1 co-branded credit card, UPI, PPBL wallet, IOCL fuel wallet & 10s of bill payments on the app.

But if PayTM (PPBL) is not complying with the regulations, then I am better off with legacy banks like HDFC or ICICI or even SBI. IT prowess cannot compensate for financial irregularities!

[TheStoryweaver]

The strict measures of RBI . Is a great example of working right and not deviating. IMO , initiallly there will be a rush to get out of Paytm and that will be very hard for the company. But, Paytm is too big to fail at this juncture and with their extensive reach, RBI shall possibly lend them a chance to rectify. I would be patient for the upcoming weeks to see how Paytm responds and fixes their mistakes. I am hopeful, a right fix shall come up.
Their app is well sorted, functions efficient and the upi failures are way neglibile than competitors.
It shall be right to observe and respond here than react abruptly

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Samurai

PayTM the UPI app should have been separated from PayTM the bank. For example, Google Pay and PhonePe are simply UPI apps, without being banks.

I have been a Paytm wallet user since before advent of UPI. Having a Paytm wallet was a boon for micro-payments if the receiver has a Paytm scan code. No pin required.

Of late, Paytm tried to push their "Payment Bank account". Below is the screenshot of my mail folder where I store my Paytm statements. Notice the telling switch in their statement subject last year. I was wondering if I had inadvertently created a Paytm payment bank account .

Originally Posted by Raghu M

Taking deposits is plain and straight illegal. Even AirTel (Airtel money) tried to do it when it started payment services. What seems to be a norm today is actually illegal.

Not true. There is a class of banks called "Payment Banks" which is legal with very defined scope of activities they can undertake. Read the 2014 RBI notification here.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Dang! Just yesterday I transferred 2k into my PayTM wallet. It went through!

I just transferred ~500 from wallet to bank account. Went through smoothly.

[ValarMorghulis]

Haven't used PayTm except may be twice?
Use GPay and BHIM. I'm all for following the law of the land. If RBI asks for compliance, any fintech better follow it.

Else we'll have a number of non-compliant companies taking people's money and God forbid if one of them runs away, it'll then be "Why did RBI not pay attention"?

[poloman]

I think we should wait and watch on this. Don't think RBI or govt will want to put a curtain on booming fintech sector. May be this is a rap on knuckles to make Paytm compliant. Also by all indications the CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma is close to ruling dispensation. So the ban in all probability will be lifted in due course of time.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by TheStoryweaver

But, Paytm is too big to fail at this juncture and with their extensive reach, RBI shall possibly lend them a chance to rectify.

Originally Posted by Amrit@wheels

For the sake of customers, especially in rural areas, the RBI needs to strike some sort of deal(?) with PayTM, some sort of heavy fine imposition or something like that because it is by far the most popular and convenient application used in rural India.

Yes, they were given two years to do that. PayTM was banned since March 2022 onwards from taking on new customers.

PayTM didn't fix the mess despite having two years. That is reason for RBI finally pulling the plug.

I used to pay both Uber and Swiggy via Paytm wallet. However, since last year I had noticed that both apps were preferring UPI or credit card over PayTM. Swiggy would hide the Paytm option deep below. I wondered why...

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

Not true. There is a class of banks called "Payment Banks" which is legal with very defined scope of activities they can undertake. Read the 2014 RBI notification

+ 1

Originally Posted by Raghu M

PayTm should have just been an intermediary between bank and a vendor. Taking deposits is plain and straight illegal. Even AirTel (Airtel money) tried to do it when it started payment services.

As rightly pointed out by @DigitalOne, RBI announced a class of new age banks (Payments & Small Finance) sometime in the middle of the last decade. The idea was to get FinTech and new/small players operate in niche spaces into the larger banking space and bring in innovation and agility (and competition) against the big banks. There are several of them; some operating across the country and others operating in niche space.

- PayTm
- Airtel
- IndiaPost
- Fino
- NSDL
- and many more

More details and full list - link

[NomadSK]

Experts, Is this possible a playing field is being prepared for Jiofin. Damn this brain has stopped trusting anything with the present dispensation. Seems equivalent to digital demonetization.

[vinodmk]

Initially, I ignored the news assuming that this was just a warning and Paytm can buy time. But looks like they got the warning a long time ago and this is a shutdown order after a comprehensive audit of the Paytm Banking business.
I am traveling today and just recharged my wallet.

From what I have read,
FastTag
- Recharges to continue till 29-Feb
- Use of Fastag till 15-Mar
- No New Paytm Tags, but they already started offering HDFC Tags (as pointed out by raptor_diwan)

UPI
- They cannot use their UPI address and will have to use third-party ones like what Gpay does

Note: The way Paytm Fastag works is on Paytm Wallet so you can always use the balance you have loaded for Fastag for other uses like Zomato, and paying at shops till 29-Feb.

Any suggestion for an alternative? I got this when I bought the car and did not opt for Paytm.
Have used HDFC Fastag in the past (old car).

Any Fastag that will work to pay for parking at malls will be good, not sure if that is a PayTm feature.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

I just transferred ~500 from wallet to bank account. Went through smoothly.

I use the wallet mostly for my milkman who uses a PayTM QR Code. I top up the wallet whenever the balance drops.

Also, I have PayTM fastag which draws deducts from the wallet. Today I will be using NICE road. Let me see if the transaction goes through. If it does, then I need not worry about switching to another Fastag provider. I hope PayTM will fix the issue, whatever it is, within end of month. They have too much to lose if they are not able to fix this and I am positive that they will figure out something since the gun is at their head!

[avira_tk]

Fintechs need to be on a leash and they're an absolute nightmare for everyone because of how ubiquitous they are in the day to day economy. They've been allowed a free rein for a while, given the Chinese ownership, this was only waiting to happen, only a fool would trust them with financial data on their own citizens. Next up should be the auto companies.

Switching upi apps isn't a big deal. Never liked paytm and gave up using it as soon as I could.

[Gautham_v6]

Like others, I am also a PayTM user. I agree that their app interface is seamless and also transactions have been mostly fail-safe. Barely have there been any issues.

I switched from Gpay to PayTM due to various cashback offers they had. Plus their wallet feature is simply unparalleled. 70-80% of businesses have PayTM payment services linked to their banks right from QR codes to sound box to POS machines. While for retail and other businesses it would be quite easy to switch to other available options, the most affected would be the small scale businesses like vegetable shops, street hawkers etc. Some of them would have to go through the KYC process with alternate Payment merchant to set up UPI.

I also went through the RBI press information released yesterday, but there is visible confusion. I am not able to understand whether from February 29, wallet and PPBL services (Banking services and loan services) alone will be suspended? As for UPI, I came across another directive asking the company to be UPI only merchant w.e.f. March 29. Could someone clarify this?

And for many members who have a sentiment with PayTM regarding the ease of app usage, I too echo the sentiments, but what one could do if banking and audit compliances are not met? Surely RBI wouldn't have issued such a directive without thorough analysis. Since 2022, when Paytm launched their banking services they were under scrutiny and had their services suspended from February till July, after they resumed services with an RBI appointed member as its CEO and were asked to follow compliances.

These days we have good alternatives. PhonePe is good, Google Pay is decent, but their app surely needs a refresh. Amazon can consider separating their amazon pay services as a separate app. Surely it shouldn't be an issue for them. BHIM UPI is good. HDFC's PayzApp is surprisingly good and is less of ads as well. Personally, haven't found Freecharge and mobikwik to be popular. We have endless options to go for as far as payment services are concerned.

At the end of the day, compliance and ethics are very much important when it comes to Banking services. Probably it's upto One97communications to sort this directly with RBI or else seek legal assistance. For end users, it shouldn't be a problem.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by vinodmk

From what I have read,
FastTag
- Recharges to continue till 29-Feb
- Use of Fastag till 15-Mar
- No New Paytm Tags, but they already started offering HDFC Tags (as pointed out by raptor_diwan)

UPI
- They cannot use their UPI address and will have to use third-party ones like what Gpay does

Note: The way Paytm Fastag works is on Paytm Wallet so you can always use the balance you have loaded for Fastag for other uses like Zomato, and paying at shops till 29-Feb.

Corrections:
You can use your wallet till the balance drops to zero. There is no deadline.
Same for Fastag. You cannot topup beyond 29-Feb.

You can continue to use Paytm UPI service beyond 15-Mar. The linked bank account needs to be any bank other than Paytm Payments Bank.

[anshu1101]

Originally Posted by self_driven

EDIT:
Found it.
Go to Help & Support > Fastag > Chat with us > Queries related to updating profile > Close my fastag.
Photos of destroyed tag (basically removed from vehicle and cut in half) have to be uploaded. Security deposit amount is refundable.

Thank you, self_driven.

I tried doing the above, but seems the Help & Support page itself is not loading. Are others facing this issue too?

I'll really miss the simplicity of the Paytm fastag and the ease of use. I hope all the existing Paytm fastags (given their numbers and popularity) get migrated to HDFC or other bank fastags (as mentioned in one of the posts above). At least the hassle of deactivation and procuring another fastag can be avoided.

[fordday]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Not really. I see plenty of PhonePe/Gpay QR codes at lots of shops. Those that only have PayTM will switch soon, may be.

I use Gpay all the time, my PayTM usage is limited to Uber now.

Agree.

Our company used to give us meal vouchers in paytm food wallet. This is stopped from last year. The food wallet can be used in very few outlets where the shop is registered as food vendor. Gradually this number have come down. I enquired with a lot of these guys on why they stopped accepting paytm in general. All of them were unanimous is saying paytm defrauded them.