Paytm in talks with Axis, Canara, Yes and Kotak to migrate merchant accounts from payments bank

Axis Bank, Canara Bank, Yes Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are among the frontrunners to partner with Paytm to migrate its merchants onboarded by the mobile payments firm through its embattled Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL), according to multiple sources.

Around 3 crore merchants are using mobile payments firm Paytm, run by One97 Communications Limited (OCL). PPBL acted as the payment service provider (PSP) partner bank for OCL to onboard these merchants. It is not clear whether one of these banks or all four will migrate the merchants from PPBL. Paytm, Axis, Yes, Canara and Kotak Mahindra did not respond to Moneycontrol's queries. We will update this report as and when we get the responses.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which imposed punitive restrictions on PPBL, has allowed OCL merchants and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users to continue using their handles, QR codes and point-of-sale (PoS) machines even after March 15, when the restrictions come into force. This move by the regulator was to avoid any merchant and consumer payment disruption.