Yes Bank recorded 5 mn UPI transactions per month after Paytm tie-up: CEO Prashant Kumar

Yes Bank MD and CEO Prashant Kumar on Saturday said that the lender registered a record 5 million monthly transactions on the unified payments interface (UPI) after tying up with Paytm. Yes Bank MD and CEO Prashant Kumar said that before the partnership, it recorded 3.3 million. Yes Bank and Axis Bank went live on Paytm app on March 15, allowing users to create new handles. Yes Bank has gone live with @ptyes handle for its users.

“Before the partnership with Paytm, we were seeing around 3.3 million UPI transactions and now we are seeing 5 million monthly transactions on UPI,” Kumar said at a post results press conference.

Kumar said the bank has around 55 per cent market share in UPI transactions by merchants. “Our market share in merchant UPI transactions is around 55 per cent. This gives us advantage on fee income and we may look at cross selling products to them in future,” he said.

Yes Bank officially entered into a partnership with Paytm, on the last day set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) to cease its banking activities. PPBL was serving as the underlying bank supporting UPI payments on Paytm's platform. In January this year, RBI restricted PPBL from accepting fresh deposits and doing credit transactions after February 29, which was later extended to March 15. Paytm has around 90 million UPI users who are using @paytm handles.

On April 17, Paytm disclosed that it has commenced the transition of its customers to alternate partner payment service provider (PSP) banks from Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL), following a directive that necessitated the cessation of banking operations imposed by the Reserve Bank of India. PSP banks facilitate the connectivity between third-party applications and the banking network. Previously, PPBL served exclusively as Paytm's PSP bank.

Last month, the NPCI also authorised OCL to operate as a third-party application provider (TPAP) under a multi-bank model. Following the approval, Paytm has accelerated the integration process with Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), and YES Bank.

In a press release last week, Paytm said, “Following NPCI's approval on March 14, 2024, to onboard OCL as a third-party application provider (TPAP) on the Multi Payment Service Provider API Model, Paytm has expedited the integration with Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), and YES Bank. All four banks are operational on the TPAP, streamlining the process for Paytm to shift user accounts to these PSP banks.”

On its website, Paytm stated: “YES Bank will also act as a merchant acquiring bank for our existing and new UPI merchants. The “@Paytm” handle will be redirected to YES Bank. This will enable our existing users and merchants to continue to do UPI transactions and AutoPay mandates in a seamless and uninterrupted manner.”