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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
The RBI’s restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank’s operations seem to be because of serious compliance failures. What was its board full of banking and policy veterans doing?
Till Thursday, I never looked at who were the board of directors at Paytm Payments Bank, currently the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. My bad? No. I knew from somewhere that Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma described himself as its part-time chairman and that wasn’t inspiring enough to dig deeper. (Paytm owns 49% in the payments bank, with Sharma holding the remaining 51%.)
Not that I don’t admire what Sharma had done to the payments industry in India. Out of nowhere he had simplified making and receiving payments to a point where “Paytm karo” became the de …
Aggressive expansion, continued dependence on its parent for business, and an adverse shift in the product mix weigh on profitability as well as investor sentiment.
The central bank’s shift to a 100% collateral requirement threatens to erode leverage, reduce volumes and force a consolidation across prop desks.
High returns, RBI-regulated comfort, and easy withdrawals drew investors in. Now, with repayments drying up, the fintech platform, its NBFC partner, and the regulator are pointing fingers—leaving customers to chase their own money.
