RBI curbs on Paytm to affect FASTag, NCMC card on platform? Fintech firm clarifies

Fintech firm Paytm has taken to social platform X to clarify some doubts of the customers after the Reserve Bank of India asked its subsidiary Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting new deposits from February 29.

The move comes two years after the central bank had asked the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-owned firm to stop on boarding new customers. The fresh RBI curbs have left customers with several questions unanswered by the firm.

Here are some of the questions which Paytm has answered on the social platform:-

Q. Will the NCMC Card stop working?
Paytm said,”You can continue using the existing balances on your NCMC Cards. We started our journey of working with other banks over the last two years, which we will now accelerate”.

“We are working on effective solutions to ensure a seamless customer experience and will keep you updated”, the payments platform added.

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Q. Will the POS Machine/Soundbox stop working?
Paytm said that the merchant payment services have not been affected by the RBI decision. “Your Paytm POS and Soundbox services remain unaffected and we will continue to onboard new offline merchants,” it added in the X post.

Q. Will FASTag stop working?
Several customers were confused as to whether the FASTag services will stop working. Paytm in the social post, allayed fears. “You can continue using the existing balances on your Paytm FASTag. We started our journey of working with other banks over the last two years, which we will now accelerate,” it said.

Further, Paytm said, “Your Paytm app is working. Most of the services offered by Paytm are in partnership with various banks (not just our associate bank). We started our journey of working with other banks over the last two years, which we will now accelerate”.

Paytm Payments Bank is 49% owned by Paytm, also known as One 97 Communications. The remaining 51% is held by Paytm Chief Executive and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

The Paytm Payments bank houses all of the parent’s 330 million wallet accounts, as per Macquarie Capital, meaning money held in them is deposited with the payments bank. Digital wallets, which let customers to store money for small retail payments, are popular in India for day-to-day payments.