RBI received 501.86 complaints per branch against PPBL in FY22-23, highest among payments banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received 501.86 complaints per branch against Paytm Payments bank Ltd (PPBL) between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received 501.86 complaints per branch against Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. The complaints were received through the offices of RBI Ombudsman (ORBIOs), according to the latest RBI annual report. This is the highest number of complaints per branch against any payments bank, the report said.

According to the RBI annual report which was published on March 11, the RBI recorded a total of 3,513 complaints against PPBL.

Paytm Payments Bank had the highest complaints amongst payments banks followed by NSDL Payments Bank which has 107.00, Airtel Payments Bank reported 41.52 per branch complaints, the report showed.

According to the report, Paytm Payments Bank led in complaints among payments banks, followed by NSDL Payments Bank which has 107.00 per-branch complaints and Airtel Payments Bank which has 41.52.

Further, state-owned India Post Payments bank (IPPB) reported the lowest per-branch complaints at 0.56.

On January 31, the RBI imposed business restrictions against PPBL citing major rule breaches and gave time till March 15 for the firm to wind down its business.

Earlier Moneycontrol reported Axis Bank, Canara Bank, Yes Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are among the frontrunners to partner with Paytm to migrate its merchants onboarded by the mobile payments firm through its embattled Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL).

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which imposed punitive restrictions on PPBL, has allowed OCL merchants and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users to continue using their handles, QR codes and point-of-sale (PoS) machines even after March 15, when the restrictions come into force. This move by the regulator was to avoid any merchant and consumer payment disruption.

On February 23, the RBI asked the NPCI to facilitate the migration of all UPI @paytm handles seamlessly to three or four commercial banks to avoid disrupting the country’s popular digital payments platform.

PPBL acts as a PSP bank for all Paytm UPI accounts, all of which have @ paytm handles. If those accounts have to function beyond March 15, they need the regulator’s special approval to seamlessly migrate those accounts to other banks and even keep the PSP function running until the assets are transferred to other banks, which could take longer than March 15.