Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed monetary penalty on two payment system operators viz., Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PBBL) as well as Western Union Financial Services Inc.

Key Points

• RBI levied a penalty of Rs 1 crore on PBBL. Penalty was imposed because of an offence related to Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (PSS Act).
• It levied a penalty of Rs 27.78 lakh on Western Union Financial Services, which is a cross-border in-bound service operator. Fine was imposed for non-compliance with certain directions that were issued by the central bank.

Offense by PBBL

In the application for issue of final Certificate of Authorisation (CoA) of PBBL, RBI observed that PPBL had submitted information which did not reflect the factual position. This was an offence of the nature in accordance with Section 26 (2) of the PSS Act.

Offense by Western Union

Western Union reported the case of breach in ceiling of 30 remittances per beneficiary during 2019 and 2020. It filed an application for compounding of the violation.

Western Union Company

It is an American multinational financial services company. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The company was founded in the year 1851 as “New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company”. In the year 1856, company changed its name to the Western Union Telegraph Company.

Paytm Payments Bank (PBB)

The Indian payments bank called PBB was founded in 2015. It is headquartered in Noida. PBB received the license to run a payments bank from RBI in 2015. It was finally launched in November 2017.