India’s Paytm Payments Bank said it expects the central bank to allow it to start taking 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: Earlier in March, the Reserve Bank of India barred the company from taking on new customers and ordered a comprehensive audit of the Paytm Payments Bank's IT systems, citing "material" supervisory concerns, without elaborating further.
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."
Earlier, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma refuted news reports that said 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 the likes of China's Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA), Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:M) (NYSE: BRK-B) and SoftBank Group Corp (OTC:SFTBY) (OTC:SFTBF) ahead of its IPO.
Recently the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma-led Alibaba and Ant Financial sold their entire stake in the e-commerce subsidiary Paytm Mall for INR 42 crore. The deal valued Paytm Mall at just $12 million (INR 100 crore) — significantly lower than 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-ever initial public offerings in the country. However, the shares have since sunk 70%.
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