Yes Bank and Axis Bank now operational on Paytm's UPI platform

15 Mar 2024 , 11:36 AM

Yes Bank and Axis Bank went online on the Paytm app on March 15, a day after the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) approved One97 Communications Limited to be a third-party app on the UPI network. Users may now establish new handles.

The development occurs on the day the RBI’s deadline for Paytm Payments Bank Limited to cease all banking operations expires. Until today, PPBL was the backend bank that powered Paytm’s UPI payments.

New users trying to sign up for UPI on the Paytm app will now receive new handles backed by these banks instead of Paytm Payments Bank Limited. The latter has essentially become inactive due to severe restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India.

Yes Bank has initiated operations with a restricted user group utilizing the @ptyes identifier, while Axis Bank has opted for the @ptaxis identifier.

Yes, the bank currently has the extra task of transferring existing @paytm handles. Paytm has around 90 million UPI users that utilise @paytm handles. Other banks will follow Yes Bank in progressively taking up these handles.

The country’s largest lender, SBI, and the largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank, will most likely go live within a few days. SBI and HDFC will use @ptsbi and @pthdfc handles, respectively.

These four banks will operate as payment service providers (PSPs), allowing a third-party app to access to the banking system.

While the RBI has directed PPBL to suspend all banking services, it has provided an exemption for PSP services because the new banks would require a few months to move these customers.

Paytm has an 11% market share in UPI, processing over three billion beneficiary transactions and 1.6 billion outbound transactions. A smooth transfer from PPBL to other banks is essential for the world’s largest real-time payment system, UPI, to work properly.

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