BT Online New Delhi Last Updated: June 20, 2017 | 00:00 IST
E-wallet firm, Paytm is likely to disrupt the market as the firm is reportedly seeking license to set up a money-market mutual fund (an open-ended mutual fund) that invests in treasury bills and commercial papers for a short term.
According to a report in Bloomberg, the latest move of the Alibaba backed firm would increase its offering to its customers, who can park their surplus cash and earn interest. Earlier in the year, it started digital trading in gold.
Paytm has received payment banks licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2015.
Earlier, last month, Paytm launched niche payments bank, offering 4 per cent interest rate and cashbacks on deposits as it looks to double its customer base to 50 crore by 2020.
Paytm, which saw a phenomenal rise after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shock ban of high-value currency notes in November last year resulted in cash crunch and boosted use of its electronic wallet, will invest Rs 400 crore to build its banking network over two years.
It will open 31 branches and 3,000 customer points in the first year.
Paytm is third firm after Bharti Airtel and India Posts to have launched payments banks.
As many as 11 companies including Reliance Industries and Indias top three telecom operators were in 2015 permitted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up payments banks which can take deposits and remittances but cannot lend.
(With inputs from PTI)
