India’s Paytm To Offer App-Based Stock Trading

“Investing in stocks was never this easy,” India’s Paytm Money boasted in a blog post. The FinTech company said that adding stock trading to its platform will unlock “immense growth potential.”

The company noted that to start investing in stocks, users can “simply download the Paytm Money Stocks app today and become investment-ready quickly.”

Paytm said the company is launching an “early access program” for the stocks app, which was approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last year. This takes the company a step closer to becoming “India’s most comprehensive wealth management online platform.”

The company sees a growing market for the app, since there are “only two million direct equity investors in India.” The platform aims to provide “ease of access,” a paperless account-opening process and important information for stock buyers.

Paytm Money Stocks will “provide an entirely digital, cost-effective and secure” platform, both for those who have experience with investing and those who are newbies, the company said. “All the cash delivery trades are free on the app, and only Rupees 10 (13 cents) is charged for intraday trades.”

Paytm also provides an eCommerce payment system. The company recently expanded its Paytm Postpaid program; the service is now available to buy groceries, milk and other home essentials from neighborhood kirana stores and other popular retail destinations, such as Reliance Fresh, the convenience store format for the retail business of Reliance Industries of India. Also part of the package is the possibility of an increased credit limit.

Last month, Paytm announced plans to purchase Raheja QBE General Insurance Co, with the goal of taking insurance products to the grassroots of India.

Paytm’s payments app is based on the UPI platform by the National Payments Corp. of India. Other such apps that use UPI include Google Pay, PhonePe, WhatsApp and BHIM.