Bloomberg on Indian Money Mkt Fund
Bloomberg writes "India's Paytm Said to Seek License to Offer Money Market Fund." The article explains, "India's largest digital-payments company, Paytm, is seeking a license to set up a money market fund where users can store cash and earn interest, in competition with the country's banks, according to a person familiar with the matter. Paytm has applied to India's central Reserve Bank of India to start the fund and increase its offerings to its over 250 million users, said the person, asking not to be named because the matter is private. It's another step in the startup's push to disrupt the country's financial services industry after it secured a banking license and began offering gold trading earlier this year. The company is now officially called Paytm Payments Bank Ltd., and is allowed to take deposits and pay interest but not lend money. Paytm is following the path of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s financial affiliate, which set up its Yu'E Bao fund less than five years ago in China and saw it become the world's biggest such fund with 1.14 trillion yuan ($167 billion) in assets. Both Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Financial are investors in Paytm." The piece adds, "Like traditional money market funds started in the 1980s, the Paytm money market fund will sweep leftover digital cash into a fund and pay users interest on it. The rate of interest is not immediately known but the fund will offer better returns than the interest rates banks offer on savings accounts currently, the person said."
