Paytm Payments Bank partners with Mastercard for physical card rollout
Paytm Payments Bank has partnered with Mastercard to issue virtual and physical debit cards.
Paytm is one of a group of new payments banks in India
The deal will see the bank’s beta customers issued with cards in an initial rollout, followed by its entire userbase in short order.
“We continue to play a leading role in spreading the digital payments network in the country,” says Satish Kumar Gupta, CEO and managing director at Paytm Payments Bank.
“We aim to provide maximum flexibility to our customers to choose their preferred mode of digital payments, and our partnership with Mastercard is in the same direction.”
Paytm Payments Bank was launched by Paytm, an e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company, in 2017.
Around the same time, Japan’s Softbank committed funding of $1.4 billion to Paytm and its banking project (making it Softbank’s largest investment in India).
This week the bank announced that it had reached $130 million in deposits across 57 million savings accounts.
Payments banks are a model created by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and are able to provide current and savings deposits accounts, debit cards and payment services, but are not allowed to issue loans and credit cards.
“While digital payments are taking off in India, growing faster than many other countries around the world, 90% of all retail transactions are still in cash,” says Porusg Singh, division president for South Asia at Mastercard.
“Mastercard is committed to the Government of India’s vision to fuel the growth of digital payments. Towards this goal, [we are] pleased to offer its fully-integrated global payment platform to Paytm Payments Bank.”
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