Paytm Payments Bank had seen a sharp jump in customer complaints in the last financial year, much before it came under stringent regulatory action, according to the disclosures made by the company.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, Paytm Payments Bank reported 66,751 complaints across multiple categories, two-and-a-half times more from the previous year when 26,692 complaints were reported. The numbers were 25,988 in FY21 and 14,369 in FY20.
These were mostly user-generated complaints. Such cases are typically solved by the bank itself, often within five to six days.
A further analysis of the data shows that internet and mobile banking-related complaints stood at 39,000 in FY23, the highest among all categories, followed by 8,974 complaints related to account opening and difficulty in operations of accounts.
“This was the year when the bank was put under an embargo by the RBI, which could have caused a lot of problems for customers looking to open accounts or trying to access existing accounts,” said an industry insider in the know.
Emailed queries to the bank went unanswered.
While the number of complaints was high, the jump between FY22 and FY23 was much higher compared to any of the prior years since the bank started its operations.
Mobile banking complaints jumped 300% between FY23 and FY22, while wallet-related complaints jumped 94% and issues with accessing the accounts went up more than 700%.
The bank expanded its operations significantly over the last couple of years, bringing in more customers, hence converting into more issues.
For context, rival Airtel Payments Bank reported 445 complaints during FY23 with 95 complaints related to loading of mobile wallets with cash. To be sure, Airtel Payments Bank with around 72.5 million wallets is much smaller in size compared to Paytm Payments Bank, which had around 630 million wallets at the end of January.
Paytm Payments Bank has been instructed by the Reserve Bank of India to halt its basic banking services from March 16. On Monday, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, announced his resignation from the board of payments bank, which replaced its directors with new inductees, mostly from the banking and bureaucratic fraternity.
