Paytm's tentative timeline to restart loan sanctioning ends on Feb 14

The tentative timeline shared by fintech firm Paytm to resolve operational challenges coming in the way of its lending business and restart sanctioning of new loans is ending on February 14.

One97 Communications President and Chief Operating Officer Bhavesh Gupta in a company conference call on February 1 had said that the company will not be issuing new loans for "maybe a couple of weeks" before resolving operational challenges posed due to RBI restriction Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL).

The central bank, on January 31, directed it to stop accepting deposits or top-ups in any customer accounts, wallets, FASTags and other instruments after February 29.

While the lending business of Paytm is not linked with PPBL, there are around 10-15 per cent of Paytm merchants, which are around 60,000-70,000 merchants, who are estimated to have autopay mandate set up through their PPBL account.

Paytm needs to migrate repayments linked to PPBL to other banks to avoid disruption in repayments.

"We will not be originating loans for maybe a couple of weeks before we solve for the operational challenges, and then we go back to normal," Gupta had said.

In the December quarter, the company distributed loans worth Rs 15,535 crore comprising merchant loans, personal loans, and postpaid loans.

The total number of unique users who have taken a loan through Paytm increased by 4,400,000 over the last 1 year to 12.5 million.

Paytm distributed Rs 3,579 crore merchant loans, Rs 4,460 crore personal loans, and Rs 7,496 crore postpaid loans in December 2023.

An email query sent to Paytm in this regard elicited no immediate reply.