Paytm Money to start operations in 8 weeks with a dozen AMCs

BENGALURU: Having received the approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) last week, Paytm Money is all set to commence operations in the next six to eight weeks along with a dozen or so asset management companies (AMCs).

Set up under the broader umbrella of Paytm, the country’s largest payments platform, Paytm Money is poised to develop into its wealth management arm.

“There are 43 AMCs. We will integrate with 10-12 of them before commencing operations, and try to get 30-35 AMCs within the next 12 months,” said Pravin Jadhav, senior VP for business at Paytm Money. “It will start as an independent application on the app store.”

The entity plans to start with mutual funds and later enter into other asset classes such as equity. Jadhav said he wants to build Paytm Money, unlike the parent Paytm app, as an engagement product where customers will come for much more than only transactions since wealth management is a different business altogether. With interest rates falling, consumers will eventually be forced to look for wealth management, he said.

In China, for instance, Yu’E Bao has become the biggest money market fund in the world with assets under management of more than $200 billion. The fund is promoted by Alibaba’s payment affiliate Ant Financial which uses surplus funds lying in customers’ payment accounts.