Whatever happened with Paytm was unfortunate, says HDFC CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan

HDFC Bank's Managing Director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan has termed RBI's action to bar Paytm's lending arm from running its business as "unfortunate". 

While speaking at an investor conference by Goldman Sachs, Jagdishan acknowledged the fintech's technology platform, which "HDFC is leveraging through a partnership". 

Paytm and HDFC Bank have an arrangement for FASTags, which Jagishan said had a reasonable market share. "Now, that may get distributed among a lot of other people.” 
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When asked if the lender is exploring more opportunities with the fintech, Jagdishan said, “We are far more sanguine on what we want to acquire, even on the merchant side.” 

India’s largest private sector bank would continue to do such experiments as long as they are in compliance with the regulatory norms, he added.

Jagdishan termed the Paytm app as “very well respected” and popular. “We have a PayZapp which probably can get a slightly better run rate, and that’s what we hope to have on merchant acquiring.”

Jagdishan said the bank was in no hurry to acquire all the opportunities available. “The company will pick up opportunities that are available and will expand there organically.” 
Amid growing concerns over Paytm's fate, its founder assured users that the digital payment app will keep working "today, tomorrow, always." 

In a post on X, Vijay Shekhar Sharma shared a full-page newspaper advertisement showing Paytm QR and soundboxes.
"India's every Paytm QR and Soundbox will keep working. Today. Tomorrow. Always," the advertisement read.

Last week, Paytm signed a partnership with Axis Bank to transfer all nodal accounts maintained by PPBL to the private sector lender.

Axis Bank serves as a key payment service provider for major UPI players such as Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Cred, and PhoneP.