LIC ties up with Paytm to facilitate its digital payments

By Leandra Monteiro

State-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has appointed Paytm to handle its digital payments. The state-run insurance firm had previously tied up with another payment gateway but has now inked a new deal with Paytm as most of its payments have gone digital.

According to the new agreement with Paytm, the company is required to provide seamless processing, more options and a wider variety of players, like wallets and banks. Paytm’s ability to work across multiple payment services beyond a specific segment, such as UPIs or cards, worked in its favour to seal the LIC deal.

Similar to other businesses across India and around the globe, LIC has seen an acceleration of online transactions since COVID-19 gripped the region. According to the PSU insurer, it now receives roughly INR  600 billion in digital payments for premiums, not including those made via banks. Additionally, the PSU gets about 80 million in digital transactions, a number that is expected to only grow more.

Paytm reported in March that its monthly transaction volume in February hit 1.2 billion. The Indian payments firm also partnered with Ola and IndusInd Bank to seek a new umbrella entity (NUE) license from the Reserve Bank of India, a move that would help Paytm establish its own national payment network. The firm claims it facilitates digital payments in 500,000 villages and provides training to more than two million merchants.