India s Paytm Payments Bank said it expects the central bank to allow it to take on new customers in the next few months and would comply with all the audit requirements to remove the regulatory curbs imposed on it.
What Happened: The Reserve Bank of India ordered a comprehensive audit of the Paytm Payments Bank's IT systems in March, citing material supervisory concerns, and barred them from taking on new customers.
In an interview with Reuters, Madhur Deora, group chief financial officer of Paytm, said the bank is working with the RBI to complete the IT audit and address the regulator's concerns.
The process is underway and we think it should take three to five months from where we are right now. Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma refuted the news reports that the central bank found Paytm Payments Bank's servers were sharing information with Chinese entities that own a stake in the firm.
Payt received backing from China's Alibaba Group Holding BABA, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., NYSE: BRK-B and SoftBank Group Corp SFTBY SFTBF ahead of its IPO.
Recently, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma-led Alibaba and Ant Financial sold their entire stake in Paytm Mall for INR 42 crore. The deal for Paytm Mall was just $12 million INR 100 crore - much less than in 2020 when it was valued at $3 billion INR 21,000 crore. Paytm made its debut on the Indian exchanges in November last year in one of the biggest public offerings in the country. The shares have sunk 70%.
Read Next: Walmart Intensifies its rivalry with Google, Amazon by Targeting India's Budding Payments Market.