Payments bank crisis

The challenges faced by payments banks have once again come to the fore with a leading business conglomerate winding up its business.

Nearly 17 months after it began operations, Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited on Saturday announced that it was shutting down operations on account of “unanticipated developments” that made its economic model “unviable”.

In a late evening announcement on Friday, Vodafone Idea Limited in a regulatory filing said, “The board of directors of our associate company — Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited (ABIPBL) — has, subject to the receipt of the requisite regulatory consents and approvals, approved the voluntary winding up of ABIPBL”.