Paytm’s Model Is Doubtful, No Future in Digital Wallets: HDFC MD

Aditya Puri hit out at Paytm saying that the company is suffering a big loss and they cannot be another Alibaba.

Aditya Puri and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Photo: The Quint)

While the country is increasingly taking to digital wallets after demonetisation, HDFC Bank's Managing Director Aditya Puri doesn't see a future in this growing trend.

In a conversation with ET Now, Puri said that people started using these wallets in desperate times, but as new digital payment options emerge, users could shift to easier platforms.

He hit out at Paytm, saying that the company is suffering a big loss, and they cannot be another Alibaba because government regulations don't allow a replication of model.

Current loss of Paytm is at Rs 1,600 crore; its current economic model is doubtful... There is no money in the payment wallets business. Payment wallets have no future. There is not enough margin in the business for wallets to have a future.

Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC

According to The Economic Times reports, experts say that in the long term, systems like UPI stand a better chance as they enable direct transfer from bank accounts.

All praises for demonetisation, he said that more people have started paying income tax post the move and switching to digital transactions will reduce corruption.

Talking about the future of banking, he said that he “spent time in Silicon Valley to understand how banks are being reimagined.”

Paytm was possibly the biggest beneficiary of PM Modi’s demonetisation move, with its customer base and transactions having seen a big spurt.

However, Paytm also to lose 20-30 percent of its offline category customers after 13 March, when the Reserve Bank of India takes the limits off from cash withdrawals, founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in an interview to CNBC TV18.

(Source: ET Now)