Paytm’s payment instruments have helped the company

 Paytm’s payment instruments have helped the company 

build a multi-stack payment architecture and bring it revenue

 

 

India’s leading digital payments and financial services player Paytm filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus for its $2.2 billion Initial Public Offering on 15^th July 2021. The prospectus gives an insight into the business model of the company and how Vijay Shekhar Sharma has envisioned building India’s largest financial services giant. 

 

One of the interesting aspects is how Paytm has built its flywheels to create a complete network effect and a multi-stack payment architecture. 

 

Paytm has built a strong base in India, with multiple payment instruments. These instruments include prepaid payment instruments such as Paytm Wallet, sub wallets and prepaid card; Savings account, current account, debit cards, FASTag, National Common Mobility Card, and Unified Payments Interface (“UPI”) handle, which are issued or opened by Paytm Payments Bank, and Paytm Postpaid, equated monthly instalment, credit cards, amongst others, issued by our financial partners. The company has listed the same in its competitive strengths, as it said, “Our payments platform, with a wide selection of daily life use cases and payment instruments, provides us with large scale and reach.”

 

It is the only payments company in India, along with its affiliates who own each layer of the payment stack. The power of these payment instruments is that it gives Paytm revenue. “Given the comprehensive nature of our payments platform, we believe that we have better ability to monetize the payments business because we are not dependent on one or few payment methods where monetization potential is low or zero. Some of the payment instruments like credit cards and payment methods like in-store devices have a much higher monetization potential than the more widely used payment forms,” the company said in its DRHP. 

As stated in the company’s DRHP, Paytm is the largest payment gateway aggregator in India based on total transactions, for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, with the widest ecosystem of payment instruments.

 

Additionally, this also gives users the flexibility to choose between different payment instruments and pay as per their convenience.

ICICI Bank and PhonePe partner to issue

 

ICICI Bank and PhonePe partner to issue FASTag

·         First bank to integrate with PhonePe for issuance of FASTag

ICICI Bank and PhonePe today announced their partnership for the issuance of FASTags using UPI on the PhonePe App. This integration allows over 280 million registered PhonePe users to order and track the ICICI Bank FASTag conveniently on the app. PhonePe users, who may be customers of any bank, will have a fully digitised experience as they don’t have to visit physical stores or toll locations to buy a FASTag. ICICI Bank is the first bank to partner with PhonePe for the issuance of FASTag.

FASTag is a brand name owned by Indian Highways Management Company Ltd. (IHMCL), which carries out electronic tolling and other ancillary projects of National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI). National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), IHMCL and NHAI are working together to make state and national highway toll payments completely digital.

 

Speaking on the collaboration, Mr. Sudipta Roy, Head - Unsecured Assets, ICICI Bank said, “We are delighted to partner with PhonePe and NPCI to facilitate increased digital adoption of FASTag in the ecosystem. This collaboration enables millions of PhonePe customers to easily apply for a new FASTag and get it delivered free of cost at their doorstep. The association comes in handy, even for users, who are not customers of ICICI Bank, as it allows them to order and later recharge with the convenience of UPI. With this, ICICI Bank has achieved another feat in the FASTag ecosystem. We have an extensive association with FASTag from its inception, as we were first to launch it nationally on the Mumbai – Vadodara corridor. Since then, we have endeavoured to expand its usage with digital availability and innovative solutions like parking fee collection at GMR Hyderabad International Airport and at Tech Parks & malls in Gurugram; Trivandrum and Vizag. Our market leadership in value and volume of average daily transactions on FASTag is a testimony of the trust that customers have shown in our rollout. We believe that our latest tie-up with PhonePe will go a long way to make availability of FASTag even more convenient, digital and frictionless.”

 

Commenting on the development, Mr. Deep Agrawal, Head - Payments, PhonePe said, “We are excited to partner with ICICI Bank to enable millions of PhonePe users to directly purchase FASTag on our platform in a seamless and convenient manner. FASTag has been instrumental in digitizing the transit payments sector. We have already seen a phenomenal response from our users recharging FASTag on our platform, with millions of customers recharging daily on the app. In fact, FASTag recharge has witnessed a 145% growth over the last 3 months indicating increased intercity travel as markets opened up post the lockdown.  We are confident that with PhonePe’s reach, superior payment and user experience, we will enable millions of consumers to purchase and use FASTag across the country.”

Sharing NPCI’s perspective Mr. Denny Thomas, Head NETC & AEPS, NPCI said, “The partnership of PhonePe and ICICI Bank will definitely increase the adoption of NETC FASTag and facilitate its doorstep delivery to the customers. We believe that this initiative will further deepen the penetration of FASTag across the country and provide the users with a seamless recharge experience through the PhonePe app. Customers have realised the importance of contactless electronic toll payments and with the increase in acceptance of FASTag at various State and City toll plazas, the retail customers are now looking forward for the same seamless experience in parking and other use case.”

PhonePe users can buy ICICI Bank FASTag by following a few simple steps. The users need to go to the PhonePe app’s homepage and click on ‘ICICI Bank FASTag’ (under My Money and Switch section) and click on ‘Buy new FASTag’. Then they just need to enter the basic details such as PAN, Vehicle Number before making the payment. The FASTag will be delivered to the customers’ doorstep which can be affixed on the vehicle windshield and then be used instantly.

For news and updates, visit www.icicibank.com and follow us on Twitter at  www.twitter.com/ICICIBank

NPCI plans expansion of its

NPCI plans expansion of its 100% contactless and interoperable parking solution with NETC FASTag in metros

·         With a great response from the first-of-its kind contactless car parking facility at Hyderabad Airport, NPCI is taking this unique service to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru

·         NPCI is in discussion with malls, airports and parking lots in Delhi & Bengaluru to implement contactless car parking

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) today announced the expansion of its 100% Contactless and Interoperable Parking Solution with NETC FASTag in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. As the first bank to extend this facility of collecting parking charges through FASTag at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport, ICICI Bank with NPCI, is set to roll out contactless car parking in other metros.

The unique facility of 100% Contactless and Interoperable Parking Solution with NETC FASTag is currently being implemented by 10 FASTag issuing banks at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport. NPCI expects the rest of the issuer banks to activate the contactless parking with NETC FASTag at the Hyderabad Airport in the next few weeks.

NPCI is now geared-up to expand the contactless car parking facility in Mumbai and Delhi. It has also initiated discussions with major malls, airports and other private parking lots in Chennai and Bangalore for the NETC FASTag powered contactless car parking solutions. The company has been receiving interests from major banks in spearheading the parking projects.

Mr. Sudipta Roy, Head - Unsecured Assets, ICICI Bank, said, “ICICI Bank has always been at the forefront of introducing innovative technology for a world class customer experience. We are happy to partner with the GMR-managed Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to enable a FASTag powered parking management system. This is a safe, contactless and hassle-free system. It works on RFID technology that also powers digital toll collection at more than 695 toll plazas across the country. We feel that commuters using Hyderabad Outer Ring Road and now the airport parking will get a seamless experience powered by ICICI Bank FASTag.”

Mr. Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GHIAL, said, “As part of our commitment to providing a safe airport experience during Covid-19 pandemic, we are happy to announce that now passengers and visitors can avail a fully contactless car parking experience thanks to the collaboration with NPCI and NETC, which has now made our car parking fully compatible with any NETC FASTag Issuing Banks in India. We have tested first with ICICI Bank and now opening up to all the balance issuers. With this customers holding any bank NETC FASTag could zip through the airport car parking with zero-contact transactions having full control over their safe travels. While, the traditional mode of transaction with digital payment over-the-counter option will also be available, however, for more safety and contact-less experience, one could avail the NETC FASTag option at the airport car parking.”

Ms. Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, “We are going to see a good adoption of this solution across all the parking lots in the near future. We are aiming at taking this unique contactless parking proposition in metro cities keeping in mind the convenience of passengers and visitors. In this new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic situation 100% contactless payment solution is going to be the need of the hour. Our endeavour at NPCI is to provide customers across the country a safe, hassle-free and truly contactless vehicle parking experience with NETC FASTag.”

The contactless car parking facility allows passengers and visitors the comfort of paying for parking without the need to roll down their windows. While the parking lots across the country are being enabled with digital payment solutions, several models are semi-automated but not 100% contactless. This leads to an opportunity to all parking providers across the country to adopt a safe and contactless payment solutions by implementing the NETC FASTag. The NETC FASTag solution not only works in a post pay solution but also with a pre-paid mode of securing parking at any parking plaza. The parking applications can seamless integrate with the NETC FASTag API model and avail the benefit of Interoperability.

How the solution works:

This automated system entails a customer buying the NETC FASTag, which is linked to a prepaid account. The tag employs Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology and needs to be affixed on the vehicle's windscreen after the tag account is active. The RFID Tag is mapped with NPCI by the issuer bank(s). The subscriber of this system can use the parking without any manual intervention, such as waiting for a parking receipt at the entry or making cash/credit card payment at the exit. There is no additional cost to customers with respect to the parking fee. One has to just purchase a onetime tag which does away with the wait time at entry and exit.

Dedicated NETC FASTag lanes are in place. When a user arrives through this lane, the strategically placed RFID reader will capture the tag with the timestamp and store the details in the local data base. While exiting, the same will be reconciled and the chargeable parking fee is automatically deducted allowing the passengers to virtually zip through the parking lot in no time. Post completion of every transaction, user will receive SMS on the deducted amount.

For any parking integration requirements you may write to Parking.netc@npci.org.in