Now a Paytm payments bank, digital wallet major offers free money transfer facilities

The most anticipated service of Paytm’s payment bank was launched by Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley on Tuesday at New Delhi.

At the Paytm payments bank, the user can do online payment related transactions by maintaining a minimum balance at zero transaction charges.

Paytm claims that it intends to bring the service of digital payments to the masses which has been deprived so far. 

Definition of a payments bank:

Paytm payments bank is a mobile first platform wherein the account holder will be given a digital RuPay debit card which can be used to withdraw money from any ATM kiosks.

Accounts holders of Paytm Payments Bank will get benefits like zero-fee account -- no minimum balance required – free IMPS, NEFT, RTGS, UPI transactions and access to over 1 lakh Paytm ATM locations across India.

Besides, the company has planned an investment of USD 500 million in KYC (Know Your Customer) operations. It is setting up KYC centres across India to complete the KYC process for customers and making them eligible for a Payments Bank account. 

On the occasion of the launch event FM Arun Jaitley said digital transaction is fast taking the place of cash being a predominant instrument for transactions with a series of government initiatives to formalise the economy.

"We had almost reconciled to the fact that the economy would be substantially informal. It's only on its own strength that it will take decades or maybe, centuries to formalise itself and that no shake-up from the system was required.

"And that on its own pace would have taken an indefinite long time and we would have all waited till the cows came home for the economy to really formalise by itself. But then several policy initiatives that the government took one after the other have set off a chain reaction and that chain reaction is visible in various ways," he said. 

(With PTI inputs)