Mumbai: The arrest of CEO Rishi Gupta won't impact Fino Payments Bank's aim to transition to a small finance bank (SFB), said Ketan Merchant, interim head and chief financial officer. He also highlighted that the bank hasn't seen any abnormal impact on its deposits so far.
"As things stand now, there is no impact whatsoever on our SFB plans," Merchant said on an analyst call. "We continue to operate on our preparations on SFB plans for which we have got a regulatory timeline of 18 months which came on 5th December onwards... Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been monitoring, and they are also cognisant that this was something pertaining to a particular programme manager...we continue to proactively engage with the RBI."
Gupta was arrested late Friday under the GST Act. Fino has said the investigation relates to some so-called program managers engaged by the bank as payment service providers. These program managers are used by banks like Fino to source and onboard mechants to whom the bank provides services.
Merchant said the program managers under question were linked to the real money gaming business which was banned by the government last October. Merchant said the case pertains to some payment service providers or program managers were engaged by the bank for sourcing merchants for UPI collection services and are unrelated to the bank's tax liabilities which are in order.
Shailesh Pandey, chief business officer at Fino, said the probe mainly revolves around three service providers who do business of about 8% to 10% of the overall annual throughput for Fino. Overall program managers as a source account for 80% of the bank's through put, he said. The impact of these service providers on the bank's UPI throughput will be lower at 3% to 8%, he said. Merchant assured that since the arrest, there has been no impact on the bank's deposit base.
"Customer balances on Feb 26 to 2026 stood at approximately 2,250 crores and it stands intact," he said. "Our teams are monitoring these regular intervals to ensure customers do not face any challenges. Our business volumes over the last three days have been maintained without any impact, which itself is a testimony of the faith of our customers, business partners, associates, business correspondents and merchants."
Fino's daily average CASA opening numbers were maintained at around 10,000 and throughput at about '1300 crores per day.
Shares of Fino recovered partially to close almost flat at '192.15 apiece on the BSE. The market is shut for trading on Tuesday on account of Holi.
"As things stand now, there is no impact whatsoever on our SFB plans," Merchant said on an analyst call. "We continue to operate on our preparations on SFB plans for which we have got a regulatory timeline of 18 months which came on 5th December onwards... Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been monitoring, and they are also cognisant that this was something pertaining to a particular programme manager...we continue to proactively engage with the RBI."
Gupta was arrested late Friday under the GST Act. Fino has said the investigation relates to some so-called program managers engaged by the bank as payment service providers. These program managers are used by banks like Fino to source and onboard mechants to whom the bank provides services.
Merchant said the program managers under question were linked to the real money gaming business which was banned by the government last October. Merchant said the case pertains to some payment service providers or program managers were engaged by the bank for sourcing merchants for UPI collection services and are unrelated to the bank's tax liabilities which are in order.
Shailesh Pandey, chief business officer at Fino, said the probe mainly revolves around three service providers who do business of about 8% to 10% of the overall annual throughput for Fino. Overall program managers as a source account for 80% of the bank's through put, he said. The impact of these service providers on the bank's UPI throughput will be lower at 3% to 8%, he said. Merchant assured that since the arrest, there has been no impact on the bank's deposit base.
"Customer balances on Feb 26 to 2026 stood at approximately 2,250 crores and it stands intact," he said. "Our teams are monitoring these regular intervals to ensure customers do not face any challenges. Our business volumes over the last three days have been maintained without any impact, which itself is a testimony of the faith of our customers, business partners, associates, business correspondents and merchants."
Fino's daily average CASA opening numbers were maintained at around 10,000 and throughput at about '1300 crores per day.
Shares of Fino recovered partially to close almost flat at '192.15 apiece on the BSE. The market is shut for trading on Tuesday on account of Holi.
