Paytm Payments Bank is back with an answer for PhonePe – sources government data to say it has the best tech for payments

• When PhonePe’s services went down last Friday, Paytm Payments Bank sent out a tweet to Phonepe offering it to build its UPI network through the bank.
• PhonePe rejected the offer saying “form is temporary, class is permanent” and chose ICICI Bank instead.
• Now, Paytm Payments Bank sent out a release sourcing a government report to say it has the best UPI platform.

As Yes Bank went into a crisis, it dragged along Indian digital payments startup – Phonepe. The startup’s servers went down on Thursday night (March 5), as it uses YES Bank as the backend for most of its UPI accounts.

As it worked on bringing the platform back up, rival digital payments leader Paytm which also runs a payments bank grabbed the opportunity to shine in the limelight. Paytm Payments Bank sent out a tweet to Phonepe offering it to build its UPI network.


However, Phonepe replied, “Inviting you to consider that if your #UPI platform was so 'seamlessly scalable', we'd have called you ourselves.” The startup then went on to rebuild its UPI platform with a new banking partner – ICICI Bank.


The tweet from Paytm was discouraged by many users as a petty marketing dig.

But the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm is not one to give up. Post Phonepe’s “form is temporary, class is permanent” comment, Paytm Payments Bank sent out a press release sourcing a government report to say it has the best UPI platform.

"Our technology infrastructure is one of the best in the global banking industry and this is best reflected in the monthly scorecard of MeitY. We leverage AI and Big Data to offer innovative products and services to our customers across the country. Our tech team employs the best minds and works round the clock to provide a seamless and efficient experience to our users,” said Satish Gupta, MD & CEO of Paytm Payments Bank.

The bank said that according to the January 2020 scorecard released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), PPBL has the lowest technical decline at 0.02%, while other major banking players have way higher technical decline rates of around 1%.

This wasn’t the first time Paytm knew how to manoeuvre a crisis to its advantage. The first example of it was the full blown front page advertisement in every other newspaper, the morning after demonetization with a tagline – “ATM nahi PayTM karo”.

See Also:
Phonepe logs ₹4,000 crore transactions a day after it shifts from Yes Bank to ICICI