The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week ordered Paytm’s banking unit, which powers most of the features of its popular digital payments app, to cease the majority of its operations from March 1 for “persistent non-compliance”, sparking a $2.3 billion rout in the company’s stock.
There are concerns about the broader impact on India’s fin-tech sector which the government says raised $5.6 billion in 2022, as digital payments and the use of smartphones and the internet boomed. Foreign investors such as SoftBank and Tiger Global have bet on the space in recent years.
In their letter to the RBI, online travel agency MakeMyTrip, PolicyBazaar and 10 other entities asked authorities to reconsider their decision on Paytm, saying it “could send a negative signal to…