Paytm Payments Bank to enable contactless card payments for merchants; joins Visa network

Paytm Payments Bank has now joined the network of global payments company Visa. With this development, it can now issue Visa cards in the market, said Visa in a statement to YourStory.  

The hints of the partnership first surfaced during Visa’s earning call for last quarter in which Visa CEO, Alfred F. Kelly, said, that the payments company is working with Paytm Payments Bank to offer debit card solutions to enhance their offerings to Paytm Payments Bank’s rapidly expanding customer base.

In a call with analysts, he added, 

“We are working with Paytm Payments Bank to offer our debit credential solutions to enhance their offerings to their rapidly expanding customer base. Paytm Payments Bank is also a new Visa acquirer and has launched contactless point-of-sale terminals for merchants who are new to card acceptance.

Kelly said that Paytm plans to significantly grow India's POS acceptance infrastructure in the next few years that will certainly help power Visa's growth in the market. 

Under the ‘Tap to Pay’ offering, Paytm customers can pay to merchants without taking out their mobile phone. According to Paytm’s website, it has also launched, ‘TAP to Pay’ Card, which is a NFC-based contactless card, where a user has to just tap on merchant terminals for payments.

TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia - Visa, in a statement, said,

“Paytm Payments Bank has formally joined the Visa network as a member and will soon be able to issue Visa cards in the market. Separately, in line with our combined strategy to expand the contactless card acceptance network in India, Paytm is also in the process of enabling merchants on the Paytm network to start accepting contactless card payments.”  

Ramachandran added that this partnership will not just rapidly scale up India’s digital footprint but also encourage more Indians to move from cash to secure, reliable, and convenient digital payments for their daily expenses.

“We are excited to be partnering with PayTM and look forward to jointly exploring mutually beneficial payment solution opportunities in the near future,” he said.

Paytm did not respond to YourStory’s queries or reveal anything around its ‘contactless’ strategy at the time of publishing. We will update the article with Paytm's response.

Post a hiatus of over six months, Paytm Payments Bank restarted its onboarding process for new customers this January after getting permission from the RBI. In a recent interview with YourStory, Paytm Payments Bank MD and CEO, Satish Kumar Gupta said that the bank expects to more than double its savings accounts base to 100 million accounts before the end of this year.   

Also read: 100M saving accounts. 350M wallets – behind Paytm and its ambitious payments bank business