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Paytm’s loan distribution business surged 357% to Rs 9,958 crore in the financial third quarter, even as the fintech giant registered sustained growth in payments and customer engagement on its super app.

The value of loans disbursed in December alone surged 330% year-on-year to Rs 3,665 crore, One97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of Paytm, said in a filing with the stock exchanges. The company had earlier reported a 374% year-on-year increase in loans disbursed to Rs 6,292 crore for October and November.

One97 shares were up 2.10% at Rs 562.95 at 11.20 am on Monday.

Paytm also said consumer engagement for its super app was at its highest, with 85 million average monthly transaction users in the December quarter, up 32% from the corresponding year-earlier period.

Growth in payments

“Our focus over the past few quarters continues to be on payment volumes that generate profitability for us, either through net payments margin or from direct upsell potential,” the company said in the filing.

Merchant payment volumes processed on Paytm’s platform in the December quarter aggregated to Rs 3.46 lakh crore, or $42 billion, a 38% growth from the year-earlier period.

The company has seen massive growth in the offline payments space, with 5.8 million merchants now subscribing to its payments devices, expanding from 2 million devices a year earlier.

“With our subscription-as-a-service model, the strong adoption of devices drives higher payment volumes and subscription revenues, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution,” the company said in the filing.

On Saturday, Paytm Payments Bank had received the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to appoint Surinder Chawla, the current Head of Branch Banking, India, at RBL Bank, as its new chief executive officer.

Last month, the company had announced a buyback of about 1 crore equity shares of Rs 850 crore at a maximum price of Rs 810 per share.