Paytm may process Rs 60,000 cr in monthly bank transfers by end of 2018

Using the app, bank transfers can be done from/to any bank account, making it easier to make payments at no charge. Even non-KYC Paytm users can avail the facility.

One97 Communications, the company that owns Paytm, plans to process Rs 60,000 crore in monthly bank transfers by the end of this year.

The company is also planning to invest Rs 5,000 crore in its core business, expecting to increase the number of transactions from 100 crore to 200 crore.

It has unified bank transfers with the 'My Payments' feature on its app.

This will enable users to make recurring, high value payment and other monthly expenses in an instant.

Using the app, bank transfers can be done from/to any bank account, making it easier to make payments at no charge. Even non-KYC Paytm users can avail the facility.

Paytm said there is no upper or lower limit to the number of payments or amount that can be transferred under the 'My Payments' feature.

"We want to ensure our consumers are able to automate all regular payments without worrying about minimum balance requirements or transaction limits," the company said.

With this new addition to its multilingual app, the company is confident of a substantial increase in the transactions.

It has been aggressively educating users to link their bank accounts.

"Our customers make regular recurring payments such as house rent, salaries of support staff, grocery payments online. This has led to a major surge in our Bank Transfer service.

"We have now simplified these payments with 'My Payments' and are expecting 6X growth owing to this rapid shift in consumer behavior in favour of going cashless," Deepak Abbot, senior vice president - Paytm said.

He added users can schedule payments for a particular day of every month.

These would be pre-decided amounts that can be paid to certain individuals or businesses on a certain date.

It will help ensure their bills and other expenses are taken care of well ahead of time.

The Paytm app would require express consent of the user to process any payment on their behalf. This would ensure customers are aware of all deductions from their bank accounts.

As far as the investments go, the company said that the majority of allocated budget of Rs 50 billion would go into user acquisition and user education.

"We would also invest heavily in product that would help us build on top of our existing services," added the company.

To deal  with the issue of users not wanting to complete the know your customer (KYC) of their account the company said that they are encouraging all customers to link their bank accounts using UPI. This does not require KYC and ensures customers are able to make all their payments seamlessly.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters