Microfinance and Payday Loans: How Paytm’s Payment Bank Will Be ‘Different’

Thursday, September 24, 2015

"There's so much scope for digital payments, and there are enough unbanked even in the city, that you can tap into with only a little effort," says Nitin Misra, who heads Paytm's payment product pipeline. "We can offer a lot to the unbanked and the underbanked, and for the small percentage of the population that is actually fully banked, we offer safety and convenience."

A week after his appointment was announced, Misra is talking to Gadgets 360 at Paytm's Noida office. Between sips of tulsi tea, he explains why he's feeling very excited to be working with Paytm, and he talks about the importance of marketing in helping educate the customers about what a payment bank is, and how it can help them.

For Paytm, the last month has been eventful. In August, it was one of the 11 entities to get the RBI's approval to launch a payment bank. Since then, it's made progress in partnerships.

Leading restaurant guide and food ordering service Zomato now lets you pay via Paytm, and Paytm has also tied up with educational institutions such as IIT Mandi, Career Launcher, and Delhi Public School, amongst others, for cashless payments, with more such partnerships in the pipeline.

At the same time, Paytm also claimed to be the first Indian product to have over 100 million registered users, and there are rumours about Paytm entering the ticketing space to compete with BookMyShow, and it might purchase Jabong from Rocket Internet. Misra, who's previously worked with Samsung and Airtel, tells Gadgets 360 that he hasn't felt this excited about work since he was with Airtel in 2004, when the data revolution in India was just about to kick off.

The entire business of Paytm is undergoing an overhaul; the payment business has to be separated entirely from the bank, and although Paytm has been largely associated with its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, it's clear that a second rung of leaders needs to become more visible to drive the different parts of the company. Which brings us back to Misra, who – just four months ago – was working on Samsung's Android and Tizen portfolios.

 

Source: NDTV Gadgets (link opens in a new window)

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digital payments, financial inclusion, microfinance