Paytm hits upper circuit as RBI extends deadline and company partners Axis Bank to move nodal accounts; Here is all you need to know

Shares of One97 Communication hit the 5% upper circuit to halt trading at Rs 358.35 after the company’s deadline for wallet deposits and credit transactions was extended to March 15 by the Reserve Bank of India. Also, the company has partnered with Axis Bank to settle the merchants’ payments by moving the nodal account to a newly opened escrow account with the bank.

The company earlier had a nodal account with Paytm Payments Bank. “Consumer payments for merchant transactions are typically collected in a dedicated account. This arrangement enables Paytm to seamlessly transition its merchants’ settlements to Axis Bank, thereby facilitating business operations for

the merchants,” the company said in the filing.
Further, the lender of the last resort also gave some relief to the company and extended the deadline to cut off the operations from February 29 to March 15.

“No further deposits or credit transactions or top-ups shall be allowed in any customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, National Common Mobility Cards, etc. after March 15, 2024 (extended from the earlier stipulated timeline of February 29, 2024), other than any interest, cashbacks, sweep in from partner banks or refunds which may be credited anytime,” said the RBI in a press release dated February 16.

The shares of the company have seen over a 36% fall in the past 20 days after the company was barred from accepting payments in the Paytm Payments Bank and boarding new customers on the platform by the banking regulator.

In the last five days, the company’s stock has erased around 9% of investor’s wealth and nearly 54% in the past one month. Shares of the company have wiped off 42.5% of wealth in the last one year and over 77% in the last five years.

To give a comparison, the benchmark index Nifty 50 has risen 2.4% in the past five days and 2.2% in the last one month. In the long-term as well the index was able to give returns in the green. It has risen almost 24% in the last one year and around 105% in the last five years.