PhonePe’s founder and CEO Sameer Nigam on February 19 said that the fintech company does expect a good share of its rival’s customers to come on board. While he didn’t mention the big rival’s name, he was alluding to the ongoing Paytm regulatory fallout with the Reserve Bank of India.
Responding to an audience query on a big unnamed “rival” having a regulatory run-in and its impact, during his panel at the Mumbai Tech Week, Nigam said, “I think we will (gain users). If there is a loss, we'll get a proportionate share. If I said we won't get any of them, you’ll call me a hypocrite. If I said I'll try and get all of them, you will call me an opportunist. So I will just split it down in the middle, and say some will come.”
Nigam spoke in detail about the overall regulatory environment for fintechs and RBI’s action against this rival company.
“Eight years into this industry, and I'll confess, I've learned the hard way. There are certain things where I have information asymmetry. In terms of RBI legislature, for example, on the innovation side, they'll let us as the industry lead and they follow up,” he said.
“Then there are certain things, especially at the macroeconomic level, whether it's the Chinese lending apps, whether it's certain apps getting banned – the regulator and the government have more data than I do. So, I don't have all the details. Unfortunately, all the details are not published on the website. This is how many wallets were lacking KYC.,” he added.
Nigam went on to say that going by the information available in the public domain, the company in question was given “ample time to accurately respond.” “I can only go by what they've said. It seems proportionate,” he said alluding to RBI’s action.
Nigam’s comments come at a time when the RBI imposed several restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank, including not allowing it to onboard new customers, following detailed auditing of persistent non-compliance and material supervisory concerns.
RBI had said on January 31 that no further deposits or credit transactions or top-ups shall be allowed in any customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, NCMC cards, etc. after February 29, 2024, other than any interest, cashbacks, or refunds which may be credited anytime.
RBI though allowed withdrawal or utilisation of balances by the lender's customers from their accounts including savings bank accounts, current accounts, prepaid instruments, FASTags, National Common Mobility Cards, etc. till they have available balance.
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