Big banks’ payment apps see jump in daily downloads since Paytm crisis; HDFC Bank’s numbers fall

Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank are the biggest gainers.

At least three major banks have seen a surge in the downloads of their payment apps since the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) crackdown on Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) in late January 2024, shows data made available by New York-based analytics firm Appfigures, exclusively to Moneycontrol.

On January 31, the RBI announced major business restrictions on PPBL  citing supervisory concerns arising from prolonged non-compliance with  know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) norms. The decision evoked a mixed response from the fintech community and caused a major drop  in Paytm’s share price.

What do the numbers say?

Of the three banks which have seen a notable rise in the downloads of their payments apps, state-run Bank of Baroda's (BOB) World UPI app has seen a 44.3% increase in daily downloads over the last 26 days, the Appfigures data showed. As per the firm, the daily downloads of BOB World UPI on Feb 1 was 4,515, but rose to 6,513 on Feb 27.

Similarly, State Bank of India (SBI) saw a  9.5% increase  in downloads during the same period. On Feb 1, the daily downloads of YONO SBI was 61,943, which grew  to 67,804 on Feb 27, per the data.

Likewise, ICICI bank's iMobile Pay app   grew 15.8%,  from daily downloads of 10,040  on Feb 1, to 11,623 on Feb 27.

Bank payment apps download trend since Paytm crisis

HDFC Bank’s downloads fall

HDFC bank's PayZapp app saw a 46.7% drop in downloads during this period. PayZapp’s daily downloads from Google Play store on February 1 were 65,829, which declined to 35,056 on February 27. However,  the downloads shot up to 72,512 on Feb 5, per the data.

Emails sent to HDFC Bank, BoB, ICICI Bank, and SBI seeking their comments for this story remained unanswered till the time of filing the copy.

What do experts say?

“HDFC PayZapp's focus is on a premium, affluent user base, potentially reflecting its parent bank's positioning, which may not resonate with non-urban users,” said Monica Jasuja, a fintech  industry insider.

“Concerns surrounding Paytm's future, fuelled by rumours about its payments bank, could be pushing these users to seek alternative apps, which explains why PSU banks’ payment apps have shown significant growth in the last few days,” added d Jasuja.

The Paytm saga

On January 31, the RBI barred PPBL from accepting fresh deposits and undertaking credit transactions after February 29. The central bank later extended the deadline to March 15.

The Appfigures data shows that Paytm has seen a 44% decline in daily downloads, from 1,28,666 on February 1,  to 72,117 on Feb 27.

The RBI has said that Paytm merchants have to get a new QR code linked with a bank account other than PPBL in order to use Paytm’s soundbox and POS terminal services after March 15.