Paypal & PayTM : Insights for Indian AML/CFT Professionals
Paypal
·
Payment gateway
PayPal processes
online payments for merchants and e-commerce websites by securely transmitting
payment information to the merchant's bank or payment processor.
In the same way that a point-of-sale terminal at a
brick-and-mortar cash register looks at a card's chip to check if the card is
valid, an online payment gateway helps ensure payments are legitimate. Since
you can't access the physical card when processing an online order, the payment
gateway handles the work for you.
·
Payment aggregator
PayPal can
aggregate transactions from multiple merchants and businesses under a single
merchant account through its PayPal Payments Pro service. This can
simplify the onboarding process for smaller businesses, as they don't need to
set up individual merchant accounts.
Payment aggregators can offer
several benefits, including:
·
No merchant account required
Unlike traditional payment processors,
payment aggregators don't require businesses to set up a merchant account.
·
Quick processing
Payment aggregators can offer faster
processing times than conventional payment processors.
·
Fixed rates
Payment aggregators often offer fixed
rates, so the price doesn't increase as transaction volume increases
PayPal
approached Delhi High Court to challenge the order of the FIU, dated December
17, 2020, which categorized PayPal as a Reporting Entity (RE) under the
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and imposed a monetary penalty of
approximately INR 96,00,000 (US$ 115,419) pursuant to Section 13(2)(d) of the
PMLA.
The alleged violations include multiple aspects:
Firstly, the individual's
contravention of Section 12 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),
involving intentional avoidance of responsibilities related to the maintenance
and disclosure of transaction data due to a failure to register as a Reporting
Entity (RE) as mandated by the PMLA;
Secondly, non-compliance with Rule 7
of the PMLA Maintenance Rules, including the failure to register and provide
essential information regarding the Designated Director to the Financial
Intelligence Unit (FIU); and
Thirdly, a violation associated with
Rule 7 of the PMLA Maintenance Rules, focusing on the failure to register and
disclose the identity and contact details of the primary officer.
The FIU had previously imposed a substantial penalty on PayPal based on alleged violations of Reporting Entity (RE) obligations under the PMLA. The Delhi High Court decided to discharge this penalty on two primary grounds:
- That
PayPal genuinely believed it was not a PSO and did not willfully
contravene a statutory obligation, particularly when the legal position on
this matter was unclear, further supported by differing stances taken by
the RBI and FIU.
- That
it co-operated with the FIU throughout, even while contesting its R
status, including suggesting alternative mechanisms to share information
in a letter to the FIU.
PayTM
Paytm is an Indian multinational financial technology
company, that specializes in digital payments and financial services, based in
Noida, India. Paytm was founded in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma under One97
Communications.
One97 Communications (OCL), the
parent company of Paytm, owns 49% equity in PPBL, with Sharma, the majority owner, holding the rest. RBI allows payments banks, under its differentiated
licensing scheme, to accept current and savings deposits and offer payments
products, but no lending is permitted.
Besides, both entities, OCL and PPBL, share close business linkages. The parent company’s Paytm app offers various payments instruments from Paytm Payments Bank, such as Wallet, Paytm UPI, FASTag, and fixed deposits.
The company predominantly offers mobile payment
services to consumers and enables merchants to receive payments through QR code
payment, Payment Soundbox, Android-basedpayment terminal and online payment
gateway. Apart from these basic services the company in partnership with
various financial institutions also offers financial services such as
microcredit, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) facility to its consumers and merchants.
Along with these services such as from bill payments and money transfer, the
company also provides ticketing services, retail brokerage products and online games.
Paytm's parent company One97Communications was listed on the Indian stock
exchanges on 18 November 2021. For the fiscal year 2022-23 Paytm's gross
merchandise value (GMV) was reported to be 13.2 lakh crores.
Since its inception the company had shown lot of
financial innovations and continuously offered lot of financial services to the
users. To cite a few such offerings are in January 2014, the company had
launched the Paytm Wallet and it became a very popular payment option for
booking of tickets with Indian railways and Uber also added it as a payment
option. In the year 2015 it expanded the coverage of the payment facilities
such as payment of education fees, metro recharges, electricity, gas, and water
bills. As a result of the offering of the ease of payments and coverage of
various financial services the user base of the company grew from 1.18 crores
in August 2014 to 10.4 crores in August 2015. In the year 2016 the company
started offering of the payments that can be made for movies, events and amusement
parks ticket bookings. The company’s and the Paytm payment app popularity
continuously started growing and it became the first payment app in India to
cross over 10 Crore app users. In January 2018 the company entered into a joint
venture with the popular Alibaba group gaming company AGTech holdings for the
launch of Gamepind a mobile gaming platform. However, it was renamed as Paytm
First Games in June 2019. One more important milestone was achieved was in
March 2018, when the company started offering Paytm Money for Investment and Wealth Management. In May 2019 the company partnered with Citibank and launched
Paytm First Credit Card. In July 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic times the
company partnered with Tata groups starbucks and facilitated the customers to
order food online. As a result of such offerings the company became very
popular among the FinTech companies in India and was able to penetrate much
deeper in the market. It had created a strong positioning in the minds of the
customers with its much liked tag line “Paytm Karo” and was recognised as the
poster boy in Indian FinTech revolution.
Concept of Payment Bank
According to the rules of the
payment banks, it cannot lend any money and can accept deposits only up to
Rs 2,00,000.
In September 2013, the
Reserve Bank of India constituted a committee headed by Dr Nachiket Mor to
study 'Comprehensive financial services for small businesses and low income
households'. The objective of the committee was to propose measures for
achieving financial inclusion and increased access to financial services
The committee submitted
its report to RBI in January 2014. One of the key suggestions of the committee
was to introduce specialised banks or ‘payments bank’ to cater to the lower
income groups and small businesses so that by January 1, 2016 each Indian
resident can have a global bank account.
The
main objective of payments bank is to widen the spread of payment and financial
services to small business, low-income households, migrant labour workforce in
secured technology-driven environment
RBI Action on PayTM Payment Bank
In the RBI investigation in 2018, the Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) has been found to have violated several regulations, and was put on temperoray halt in onboarding new customers.
The RBI audit in March 2022 found that money and data traffic flow between Paytm Payments Bank and the larger company that sparked accounting and supervisory problems.
The RBI had warned Paytm about such issues but they were not resolved. In addition, the regulator was also concerned by an overlap in management at the bank and the rest of Paytm, with the same executives making decisions on behalf of both organizations, leading to potential conflicts of interest.
Subsequently, the RBI in 2023 detected serious KYC Anti Money Laundering violations and the bank was directed to address these deficiencies including:
·
Anti-money laundering
The Financial
Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) found that PPBL violated the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and imposed a fine of ₹5.49 crore on the bank in
March 2024. The FIU-IND found that PPBL was involved in money laundering,
counter-terrorism financing, and KYC violations.
·
KYC
The Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) found that PPBL had major KYC irregularities that put users at
risk. The RBI also found that a single PAN card was linked to thousands of
accounts, and that lakhs of accounts lacked KYC.
·
Cybersecurity
The RBI found
that PPBL reported a cybersecurity incident late, and failed to implement
device-binding controls.
·
Regulatory ceiling
The RBI found
that PPBL breached the regulatory ceiling for end-of-day balance in customer
advance accounts.
The RBI also ordered PPBL to stop
accepting new deposits on January 31, 2024, due to "persistent
noncompliance" and subsequently extended the timeline to 29 Feb 2024.
The
shares of Paytm have plunged 43 per cent since January 31. Its
shares are trading near an all-time low of Rs 438.35 apiece. The sell-off
started after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred Paytm Payments Bank Ltd
(PPBL) from accepting more deposits from February 29, owing to "persistent
non-compliances".
On
Tuesday morning, the shares of Paytm were trading over 4 per cent in the green
at Rs 456.15 apiece.
The order meant that PPBL would not be able to undertake any
banking activity, including accepting deposits, credit transactions, wallet
top-ups (not even form FASTags) and bill payments.
Specific cases of objection:
1. Prohibition on new accounts
(June 2018 - December 2018): RBI
stopped Paytm Payments Bank from opening new accounts and wallets because they
were not following the rules. The ban was lifted later when they fixed the
issues.
2. Show-cause notice for KYC
violation (March 2019): PPBL
did not check an account properly when it suddenly started doing a lot of
transactions. This violated the rules about knowing your customer (KYC).
3. Rejection of payment
aggregator application (November 2022): RBI
said no to PPBL's request to operate as a payment aggregator until they get
government approval for some investments.
4. Penalty for false
information (July 2021): RBI
issued a show-cause notice to PPBL on 29 July 2021 for submitting false
information regarding the transfer of the Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit by
OCL to PPBL. The actual transfer was completed in March 2021.
5. Penalty for contravention of
Payment and Settlement Systems Act (October 2021): RBI imposed a penalty of Rs1 crore on PPBL on 1
October 2021 for contravening the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
6. Penalty for non-compliance
(October 2023): RBI imposed a penalty of Rs5.93
crore on PPBL on 10 October 2023, for several non-compliances, including
failure to identify beneficial owners and breaching regulatory ceilings in
customer advance accounts.
7. RBI's action on Paytm Payments Bank: On 31 January 2024, the RBI imposed business restrictions on the bank, citing repeated violations of norms and non-compliance with multiple rules.
In its January 31, 2024, order invoking Section 35A of the BR Act against PPBL, RBI observed that the Comprehensive System Audit report and subsequent compliance validation report of the external auditors revealed persistent non-compliances and continued material supervisory concerns in the bank, warranting further supervisory action. The Central Bank asked the Bank to stop onboarding new customers with immediate effect.
Under Section 35A of the BR Act, the RBI can issue directions to a banking company to prevent its affairs being conducted in a manner detrimental to the interests of the depositors or in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the banking company; or to secure the proper management.
The Reserve Bank of India ordered the payments bank subsidiary of Paytm to stop accepting fresh deposits in its accounts or popular wallets from March15, 2024. PayTM worked closely with regulators and moved up the compliance chain.
The
Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND), in furtherance of the powers
conferred upon the Director FIU-IND under Section 13(2)(d) of the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs.
5,49,00,000 (rupees five crore forty nine lakh) on Paytm Payments Bank Ltd with
reference to the violations of its obligations under the PMLA read with the
Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005 (PML Rules)
issued thereunder and applicable guidelines and advisories issued by theDirector FIU-IND.
As of Sept 2024, PayTM focus on its core business of payments and cross-selling financial services as it works to achieve profitability soon. The payment Network Offerings like PayTM QR , PayTM Soundbox, PayTM Card machine moved from @ PayTM handle to other banks such as Yes bank, HDFC bank, SBI and Axis bank.
Paytm serves 40
million merchants and aims to reach 100 million. The company recently secured
foreign direct investment approval from the Indian government. It is using
artificial intelligence in its products, business and operations. Paytm will
apply to the RBI for a payments aggregator (PA) licence in due course.
Happy reading,
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