Paytm Payment Bank Limited (PPBL) on Tuesday said it has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enable users to link RuPay credit cards with UPI.
With this, users can pay merchants—both online and offline—by scanning the UPI-enabled QR code via the Paytm app, eliminating the need to carry cards all the time.
“With the linkage of RuPay credit cards on UPI, customers will benefit from the increased opportunity to use their credit cards, and merchants will benefit from the increase in consumption as part of the credit ecosystem with the acceptance of credit cards using assets like QR codes,” the company said in a statement.
In June 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed linking RuPay credit cards to the NPCI-managed UPI platform to increase credit card penetration and expand the scope of digital payments in India on the back of the wide acceptance of UPI among merchants and customers.
NPCI later released an operating circular for the linkage between the RuPay credit cards and UPI.
At present, only RuPay credit cards from Indian Bank, Union Bank, and Punjab National Bank can be linked to UPI. The NPCI is in talks with other leading credit card issuers like SBI Card, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank to go live with the feature.
“We are launching payments through RuPay credit cards on UPI in partnership with NPCI and believe that this will enable the convenience of payments, while also leading to greater penetration of the credit ecosystem in India,” said Surinder Chawla, MD and CEO, Paytm Payments Bank.
Adding to this, Praveena Rai, Chief Operating Officer, NPCI, said, “The rewards and benefits of RuPay credit cards will further be enhanced with the experience of digital enablement and the convenience of making all types of payments through a single UPI app. This will lead to the widespread usage of RuPay credit cards with convenient and faster payments across online and offline modes.”
Paytm shares surge 20%
On Tuesday, Paytm shares continued to rise for a second straight session, taking its cumulative gain to nearly 28%. The rise has been in response to the positive Q3 results reported on Friday after the fintech company narrowed down its losses while hitting operating profits, excluding ESOP, for the December quarter.
On BSE, the share price of One97 Communications, Paytm’s parent company, surged as much as 20% to touch Rs 669.6 apiece in the early trade on Tuesday. It ended the day at Rs 589.30.
Goldman Sachs and Citi have a buy call on Paytm with a target of Rs 1,150 apiece and Rs 1,061, respectively, while Dolat Capital believes Paytm stock may touch Rs 1,250 per share levels. Bofa maintained its “neutral” rating on Paytm, with a target price of Rs 730 per share.
