Shares of One 97 Communications Ltd, which operates the Paytm brand, fell over 13 per cent on Monday. The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI ) has barred Vijay Shekhar Sharma from opening new accounts amid ‘content monitoring concerns’ seen in Paytm Payments Bank, the digital payments platform of Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
The company’s stock fell by 13.25 per cent to Rs 672.10 on the BSE, which is the lowest level since its listing. At the same time, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the company’s stock fell 13.29 per cent to the level of Rs 672.
The second time they were prevented from opening new accounts.
This is the third time Paytm Payments Bank has faced action from the banking regulator since its operations began in May 2017. This is the second time he has been stopped from opening new accounts.
RBI has directed Paytm Payments Bank Ltd to freeze the bank accounts of new customers with immediate effect under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, along with other laws under its jurisdiction, RBI said in a statement.
The RBI also directed the payments bank to appoint an IT audit company to conduct a comprehensive review of its information technology (IT) system. The Reserve Bank said that the opening of new customers’ accounts of Paytm Payments Bank would be subject to specific permission given by RBI after reviewing the report of IT auditors.
Shares down 69% from the issue price
Even after being the most talked-about IPO of the year 2021, the trend of decline in the stock of Paytm is not stopping. The company’s stock has reached a new record low of Rs 672.10 today. This is about 69 per cent less than the issue price. The company’s stock was listed in the market on 18 November 18021. It was recorded at Rs 1,955 against the issue price of Rs 2,150 and closed 27 per cent lower at Rs 1564 on listing day.
As of March 312021, the bank has 6.4 crore savings accounts and more than Rs 5200 crore deposits. The bank supports 33 crore Paytm wallets, and with the help of this, customers can transact in more than 87 thousand online merchants and more than 20 million stores. The bank processes many transactions, including Paytm Wallet, Paytm Fastag, Net Banking, and Paytm UPI.
Company’s loss in December quarter
Paytm reported a loss of Rs 778.5 crore in the December quarter against Rs 535.5 crore in the same quarter a year ago. However, during this period, the company’s revenue grew by 88 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,456 crore as against Rs 772 crore in the year-ago quarter.
