India central bank asks payment authority to consider Paytm request to become third party app provider

THE Reserve Bank of India said on Friday (Feb 23) it has asked the National Payments Corporation of India to examine a request from Paytm, formally known as One 97 Communications, to become a third party application provider (TPAP).

If approved, this would allow Paytm to continue processing payments via India’s popular unified payments interface.

On Jan 31, the central bank asked Paytm Payments Bank, an associate of Paytm, to wind down its business by Mar 15, leading to disruption for the popular payment app, which used the banking unit at the back end.

A set of newly identified banks will need to back the Paytm app. To ensure a seamless migration, the central bank has urged the payment authority to handle it.

“No new users are to be added by the said TPAP until all the existing users are migrated satisfactorily to a new handle,” the RBI said. REUTERS