NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday officially launched e-payments major Paytm’s Payments Bank, pointing out that digital transactions are rapidly taking the place of cash after the government’s series of initiatives to move towards a cashless economy.
“We had almost reconciled to the fact that the economy would be substantially informal. On its own strength, it would have taken decades or maybe, centuries to formalise itself. But then, several policy initiatives that the government took one after the other have set off a chain reaction and that chain reaction is visible in various ways,” he said.
Technology, he pointed out, is changing the entire dynamics of banking. “Earlier, we perceived banks to be brick and mortar branches... I still get representations during Parliament session from my colleagues who only insist on brick and mortar branches to be opened in their constituencies. But, we are realising that convenience, security and even proprietary lie in switchover itself,” he said. Paytm Payments Bank CEO Renu Satti said that the company is the country’s largest mobile-first, technology-led bank.