Fino Payments Bank Limited (FINOPB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Fino Payments Bank Limited Business Update Call hosted by Go India Advisors. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Sheetal Khanduja from Go India Advisors. Thank you and over to you, Sheetal.

Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us at a short notice. Before we begin, let me introduce the management team on the call. We have with us Mr. Ketan Merchant, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Anup Agarwal, Head Finance and Investor Relations. They are joined by other members of the senior management team. The purpose of today's call is to address the developments disclosed on Saturday and respond to questions pertaining specifically to this matter. In the interest of maintaining a focused discussion, we request that Q&A remains confined to this subject. With that, I will now hand over to Ketan. Over to you, Ketan.

Thank you, Sheetal. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining at short notice. You would have seen our disclosure on Friday, Saturday that there have been developments involving our Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Rishi Gupta. We recognize that this has understandably raised questions and concerns across stakeholders, starting from regulators to shareholders. We felt it was important to engage directly, place the facts on record and reaffirm our stability and continuity of the bank. Officials of Director General of GST Intelligence, DGGI, Hyderabad, in connection with investigation into alleged GST evasion by certain program managers associated with the bank have named Mr. Gupta in the matter. As part of their investigation, the authorities have alleged his involvement in relation to provisions of real money gaming services by partner entity and the alleged underreporting of GST. Let me state clearly and unequivocally, the bank and Mr. Gupta in his official capacity has no role in business operations of a program manager in question. Fino Payment Bank remains compliant with all GST regulations and other applicable laws and regulatory requirements. Claims and information relating to GST liabilities due to [indiscernible] bank for hypothetical numbers are completely baseless and factually incorrect. Bank has discharged all its responsibility in compliance of the GST regulations. Our legal advisers and consultants have expressed a positive view regarding the legal tenability of the action taken and matter will now proceed through a judicial process in Hyderabad. Firmly, as an organization, we are ensuring that Mr. Gupta's family is fully supported during this period. From an institutional standpoint, the Board acted immediately to ensure continuity and oversight. A committee comprising of some of the Board members and senior management team of the bank has been constituted to monitor the situation and ensure that the business operations of the bank continue to be uninterrupted and there is no impact on services of the banks to its customers or on normal functioning of the bank. A special Board meeting was convened on February 27, 2026, where Board formally requested that I oversee day-to-day functioning of the bank during this interim period to ensure seamless continuity until further decisions are taken or Mr. Gupta resumes office. We have proactively engaged all the regulators, whether it's RBI, SEBI, I4C, FIU, et cetera. For our other stakeholders, we've informed the stock exchange and issued necessary public disclosures during last 2 days on a progressive basis. We will also address your queries in this call. Simultaneously, we've communicated with our employees, customers, business partners, business correspondents, banks and financial institutions through formal channels, being e-mail, being our application, website, our merchant portal and so on and so forth. This is to ensure that there is no panic and disruption in banking operations. Large business associates have also been directly contacted. Now let me go on to some speculations which are there in the media and address those in the following statements. The bank and its official have nothing to do with business or actions of program managers in question. The bank does not directly or indirectly engage or promote any kind of betting activity through any forum, website, platform or in any form. The bank's program manager merchant onboarding process is in line with the regulatory requirement and the said due process have been followed. Onboarding is done by the concerned business relevant teams and not by any individual, neither by MD, CEO of the bank. Further, as a part of onboarding check, one of the precondition is that merchants referred by the program managers need to have existing banking relationship with other banks for facilitating UPI transaction. The bank has not issued any alleged fake invoice. All invoice issued are based on the services utilized by program managers to merchants. The bank does not maintain any current account of the program managers or merchants. The funds received through VPA handle provided by the bank are subsequently settled to the designated accounts of the program managers' merchants with respective banks. The bank does not foresee any financial liability at this point of time on account of net earning question. This is on account of the fact that there is no GST evasion by the bank. As we said earlier, the GST evasion or like abouts is on the program manager and there is no onus on the bank to monitor the GST payment of the program managers. At this juncture, we recognize liquidity is an area that stakeholders naturally focus on in this situation of this nature. And accordingly, we are maintaining enhanced monitoring and prudential buffers to ensure continued stability. Customer balances on Feb 26, 2026 stood at approximately INR 2,250 crores. And today, as I speak, it stays intact and more. Other teams are monitoring this at regular intervals to ensure customer do not face any challenges. Our business volumes over the last 3 days have been maintained without any impact, which itself is a testimony of our faith of our customers, business partners, associates, business correspondents and merchants. Just to provide some statistical data, our daily average CASA opening numbers are maintained at around 10,000 and our throughput remains in the range of INR 1,300 crores per day. This, if you recollect it off in our earlier calls and submission, this is in line with the average and in certain cases, even better given that they were weekend. At Fino, trust has been paramount for us in all our dealings and we have demonstrated it over years. We will continue with this bedrock of trust going forward as well as -- and forever. Unwavering trust amongst our strong customers and merchant base will always be our key pillar. As we move forward, our immediate priorities are to ensure uninterrupted services to our customers and communicate transparently with all stakeholders. I would like to reiterate that Fino Payment Bank remains operationally stable and financially sound, underpinned by a well-established governance architecture, rigorous checks and balances and process-led operations that ensure decisions and controls are institutionalized. With this, I will open the questions for Q&A, wherein me and my team can address any specific concerns if anyone has in this regard. Thank you. Over to you, Sheetal.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Siddharth Gupta from Voyager Capital.

I think this really helps in calming stakeholder nerves. Just for my clarity and perhaps for all other stakeholders as well, the first question I have is that, could you exactly clarify on the role of a program manager associated with the bank? I know you've used it technically but could you explain exactly what the process is and what the GST, the DGCI (sic) [ DGGI ] has an issue with? And second is when exact -- was there any intimation or communication before the arrest from the DGCI (sic) [ DGGI ] as it's a highly irregular move by a government body to be -- to arrest the CEO of, an MD of a listed entity right across? And was it linked to the GST raid in November 2025 when we roughly paid about INR 10 crores under protest?

Thank you, Siddharth. Sorry for this technical snag. As regards to your first question in context of the role of the program manager, I would urge Shailesh Pandey, who heads this business from a sales perspective and is our Chief Business Officer, to address the point. Shailesh, are you there?

Yes. Thanks, Ketan and thanks for the question. The program manager is a payment service provider whose basic role is to identify merchants in the market and refer to the bank to onboard and provide the end-to-end payment services for UPI transactions. The program managers fundamentally has multiple relationships where they provide different, different services to these merchants who require payment services, whether it is debit cards, credit cards, including UPI transactions. They integrate with multiple banks and Fino is also one of the banks with them. And we basically work with them for UPI Collect services.

Okay. Thank you. I think, Siddharth, your other 2 questions was, were there any prior notice which was given. I think we provided our clarification on that. We just had the officials coming in our office on 26th for -- in regards to some of the data points and some investigation, et cetera, for some of the program managers. And then I think the late evening of 26th Feb is where they issued us -- summons to our MD, CEO and maybe early in the morning on 27th is where we just got to know about their authorization of further taking him -- seeking his remand. That's where it stands. As regards to third point and then it's a very, very fair point, a couple of months back, there was a payment of GST INR 10 crores, which was made. This is mutually exclusive. That was in context of some of the points which the bank has been working that was regarding to the bank's GST compliance and nothing to do with this. Here in this context and in this regards, as I mentioned it earlier, there is no liability on the bank to monitor GST. So these are mutually exclusive things. This was, as we understand, because of the GST evasion of a program manager and the duties of which as Shailesh just explained.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Ashish Kumar from Infinity Alternatives.

2,3 quick questions. A, what is the proportion of the business which came from the -- this program manager? B, can you please confirm because there's been lots of news and rumors around that the bank has stopped doing any business with online gaming in line with the ban from the government entities? And C, in terms of the correspondence with RBI, has the regulator raised any concerns at all in relation to governance or the SFB process or any other thing that the regulator would be -- could be concerned on? So maybe if you can answer on all 3.

Thank you, Ashish. Let me take the third question, first, as regards to the SFB planning and any concerns coming from the regulator. See, let us all understand, this is something which is not a normal scenario where a MD and CEO of the bank is alleged for some actions of the program manager. So in this regards, there have been various meetings which have happened at -- across all the levels in the Reserve Bank of India. In our stock exchange disclosure as well, which has gone out early this morning, we have clarified this point stating that as things stand now, there is no impact whatsoever, which we have been made to understand on our SFB plans. We continue to operate on our preparations on SFB plan for which we've got a regulatory time lines of 18 months, which came from on 5th December onwards. As regards to any other regulatory concerns, I would just like to highlight that despite this news coming across, our liquidity has been intact. I earlier mentioned it of -- about our number of accounts being opened through our channels. This weekend, we had slightly ahead more impetus coming across as well. So all of this has been -- RBI has been monitoring. And one thing which you've essentially clarified and to the knowledge of RBI, which they are also cognizance of that this was something which was pertaining to a particular program manager. So all of this taken together, as things stand now, whilst we continue to proactively engage with the Reserve Bank of India, until now, we've not seen any kind of messages or something which should concern us in our normal banking operations and that's how the banking operations are going. On your point, first and second, I will just ask Shailesh to address the proportional impact and the online gaming process or online gaming perspective. Shailesh, over to you.

Thanks, Ketan. Thanks, Ashish, for the question. So online real money game till, I would say, in August 2025, which is a game of skill was allowed by the government of India. However, on -- in the month of August 2025, the same was banned by the government. The very next day, all the merchants who were associated with real money game were banned by Fino. So that's the first question answer. On the business proportion per se, I would say that this 3 people who do business would be in the range of about 8% to 10% of the overall throughput for the year.

Sir, quick follow-through for that. So the third quarter number that we had was without any online gaming revenues. Ketan, is that a correct assumption?

Yes.

Yes, indeed, Ashish, it is.

The next question is from the line of [ Ravi Mehta from One Up ].

Ketan, just a question. You said the 3 program managers form around 8% to 10%...

I'm sorry, Mr. Mehta, your voice is breaking. Can you please use your handset or come in the network area, please?

Am I audible?

Yes, sir.

No, I just wanted to clarify, you said the 3 program managers in question form 8% to 10% of throughput? Or I wanted to know what is the total business that comes from program managers across?

So Shailesh, maybe you want to take that point?

Yes. Yes. So in a program manager, banks act as a payment aggregator. There are also payment aggregators, which are licensed by Reserve Bank of India. So if you look at, the business comes from both the sides, our business has been predominantly on the program manager. But if you look at this quarter, we would be roughly at about 15%, 20% which comes from payment aggregator and about 80% comes from all the program managers put together.

So what [Technical Difficulty] overall throughput from the program managers, 80%?

Yes, yes. The program manager throughput will be about 80% this quarter.

And is there any internal exercise done to screen any future accidents?

I missed it, of future what?

I mean such -- if such things doesn't recur, so is there any way of screening the program managers with a fresh lens?

Yes. Yes. Shailesh, I think Tejas will be better equipped to take this one.

Sure. Yes, to answer your questions, there are strict monitoring controls, both at a pre-onboarding level and post monitoring -- post onboarding level, which are regularly conducted on a frequent basis. So to answer your question, yes.

The next question is from the line of Anand Dama from Emkay Global Financial Services Limited.

My first question is the program manager or the multiple program managers which are involved in this issue. Are they operating also with other banks or payment players? One. And secondly, I think you said that these 3 program managers had significant business through Fino Payment Bank.

Let me take the first questions first. And I think in somewhere in our earlier disclosures, we've made as well and we've said that -- and I will just read it so that it is reiterated and registered across. Further, as part of our onboarding check, one of the precondition is that merchants referred by the program managers need to have existing banking relationship with other banks for facilitating UPI transactions. This also answers Ravi's point earlier as well. So when we are onboarding any of the guys which have been referred by program managers, we have a precondition that he's been operating to other banks as well, besides all the other checks which we essentially do on that. Sorry, I missed your second question, Anand. What was that?

So the program managers, whatever business that they used to do, a substantial portion was run through Fino Payment Bank.

I think Shailesh is slightly better placed to answer this point.

Program manager's basic role, as I told you, is sourcing and [indiscernible] merchant. They work with different, different banks for UPI transactions and other products also. So yes, they work for different banks also.

[indiscernible] Again, Anand, just to elaborate, the program managers in contention were -- they're routing their transaction with other banks equally and the answer is yes. So it was not only Fino-dominated program manager. They were operating through other banks as well and materially also.

Okay. And the tax evasion has happened at the program manager level and not at the merchant level. Is that the right understanding?

Yes. So the GST evasion, whatever claimed by the GST authorities has happened at a program level -- or program manager level or at a merchant level, both levels.

At both levels. And there is no tax liability which comes in on the bank, whatever transaction that they do through the program manager, there we are fully compliant. Is that the right understanding?

Yes. So Anand, just to clarify, in our statement also we have mentioned. So bank is liable to the extent of fees or revenue earned from the transaction routed through this program manager, where bank has already discharged all its liabilities on GST or any other regulations.

Okay. So I think there was the first question where you said that INR 10 crores was the penalty that we paid somewhere in November after the raid. That INR 10 crores fee -- penalty was not at all related to these revenues, right?

Yes. So Anand, let me clarify that the INR 10 crore is not a penalty. So the INR 10 crore was an ad hoc payment made to the -- for the GST, which will be subsequently adjusted against our any normal GST liability. So that was not a penalty. So the 2 issues were totally different. The November -- when we made this payment were different as against the issue in hand right now.

But Anand, I just want to reiterate that, that INR 10 crore is not a penalty by any means which has been issued, whilst it is not connected to this case but it is important to get a complete clarification on the point.

Sure. And secondly, what as per you basically or your lawyers that would have led to the arrest of the MD and CEO that I'm sure the GST authorities also understand that the liabilities of the merchant and the program manager, why would they basically arrest the MD and CEO of a bank? So what could be your assessment of this arrest?

So Anand, I think we have been advised by our lawyers also to not to comment on this. Right now, this is -- the matter is under sub judice and it has multiple repercussions. So we will not be able to comment further on that.

Yes. But just one thing on this is, you rightly said, Anand, that the matter is pertaining to tax evasion. And I earlier in my statement has also made it and even in my earlier press release, I have just mentioned that any of the bank officials or bank cannot be held accountable for the GST tax evasion of a program manager.

And any more information has been seek by the authorities beyond these 2 to 3 merchants, [indiscernible]?

No. So I think they've -- whatever data which they have been asking across, we have been giving across to them. Their focus primarily is around those 2, 3 program managers and merchant and the relevant information, et cetera, which they have seeked from us and maybe from some other banks as well, I'm not aware. But we've been providing all our inputs to them as they have been asking across.

Sure. And the R&D...

Mr. Dama. I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir. Sir, we have others who are waiting. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of [ Kaushik from AK Investments ].

Firstly, a quick question. This case is pertaining to which year because if I go into the details, right, I mean, the guy was arrested in 2024, I guess. So this case was related to which year, whatever we are being accountable for?

So this case is pertaining to the current financial year. So they have -- currently, the authorities have been asking the information relating to the current financial year.

Okay. Okay. And what is the revenue which got generated through this? Or it was non -- I mean, not on the books. What was the thing?

So we cannot comment upon what revenue they were generating or the program managers were generating as we have clarified that whatever revenue we were generating from these program managers, which was a small component of -- as a percentage of our revenue was -- and we have discharged all the GST liabilities on the same.

Sorry, I did not understand clearly. Can you be more clear?

So the clear is, we -- so we will not be able to comment on the revenue generated by the program manager overall. We can only speak about that we have discharged all the GST on the revenue earned by -- through -- by Fino on -- through the transactions routed through this program manager.

No, [ Kaushik ], just to add, how much of the revenue, which the -- so alleged program managers are generating, as we earlier said, we are not the only banks with -- to whom they are operating it off. So we do not have sight on what has been their functioning across all the spectrum of the banks and across their business. And that's what Anup was trying to emphasize on.

From our side, how much that we discharged?

Shailesh, do you have a idea on what is attributable to us in terms of revenue or else we can just come back later.

Yes. We'll have to have a look from a revenue perspective. But as I told you the...

Let's -- we'll come back on this.

Yes, yes, you were saying something.

As I said earlier, the -- this program managers in question do about 8% to 10% of the throughput. So we'll evaluate and we'll come back.

Okay. Okay. And sir, this -- whatever the digital services we were doing, can you -- how concentrated our throughput is coming from? Can you share some light on the growth trajectory of digital services also? And which are the industries that are contributing heavy? Are there any, I mean, one-offs or we are getting throughput? Can you throw some light on digital services?

So Kaushik, I think as Sheetal earlier said, this is a call with the intent of a particular incident, which has happened. So I think we should just restrict it to that. Maybe in our other calls and other publications, which we are doing across, we can give a detailed update and -- on the same.

We take the next question from the line of [ Pratik Choudhary from Samarthya Capital ].

Sir, you mentioned that the transactions are pertaining to this financial year. So just wanted to seek a clarification that are these transactions pre the ban coming into place or post the ban coming into place?

So yes, as mentioned by us that the gaming -- the transactions which were involving real money gaming were also blocked by the bank effective whenever the regulations are blocking the real gaming partners, we have also blocked those transactions on that day in August 2025. So this is pertaining to that period. The -- so real money gaming transactions are not happening post August 2025.

So all of this investigation is for all the transactions that happened before the ban came into place?

Yes, all relating to the real money gaming. So we will presume that it is all pertaining to the private liability.

The next question is from the line of Siddharth Gupta from Voyager Capital.

Just a quick couple of more questions. To clarify, does Rishi have any directorship on any unlisted -- any company or partners that were currently in allegation because that's also something that has popped up in media reports that this could have been linked to that. So just a clarification on that would help. Second, from what I understand, what you've been consistently saying, it's about 3% to 8% of the UPI throughput which, if you could put a number -- rough number on how much it's impact the bank's actual revenue, which I'm assuming is substantially lower, that would be -- I know you said you'll come back with a precise number but of course, an approximation would also be helpful. And if I've understood correctly from everything that you're trying to say that whatever the allegations are against the program managers or the merchants and how they link back to Rishi, the fact that remains is the entities that are involved in this were one of the conditions for your working with them or part of your risk management program was that they already engage in UPI-related revenue with some other banks. And secondly, that they do not -- at least from your checks or at least from your end, were very clear on not engaging with any illegal activity. Yes, like a very absolute clarification on this would be very helpful.

So let me just start from the reverse order first. Yes, I think we have our transaction monitoring system, where not only for these but for otherwise as well. And there are periodic checks, which Tejas earlier attempted to explain as well. So irrespective, it's not a onetime KYC or onetime [ CPC ] is what we do. We just continue doing that off on an ongoing basis. And wherever we find that any unusual pattern is coming across, we essentially blocked them. As regards to the first point, what was your first point? Anup?

Rishi having directorship.

Rishi having directorship, I have our Company Secretary, Basavraj Loni, on the line. Presumably, he is there. Maybe he can just put a light on this. To the best of my understanding, it is not there but I just want him to confirm. Basavraj, are you there on the line? Sheetal, Can you unmute, if you're there.

Yes. So he's not -- Mr. Rishi Gupta is not a Director on the Board of any unlisted company.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Basavraj.

Yes. So Siddharth, on the point of how much is the impact, I think in one of the clarifications, my colleague, Shailesh mentioned that overall, the real money gaming transactions for the bank had only a 10% impact when the ban happened. So you can assume that the impact on the revenue till that period from April to August is around 10% of the revenue from the digital payment services.

And Siddharth, just one more point. You did say earlier and maybe I also said that is that precondition there in terms of the program managers working with other banks? Yes, I reiterate that is one of the important preconditions which we onboard for all our program managers.

And just a quick request, small request, if the con call could be uploaded as soon as, whenever it concludes so that we can always revisit it for further details. I'll go back to the queue now.

We'll take the next question from the line of Suraj Singhania from RatnaTraya Capital.

My questions have been answered.

We'll take the next question from the line of [ Hansini from NW18 ].

[indiscernible]

[ Ms. Hansini ], I'm sorry to interrupt you, ma'am. Your audio is not clear.

Is it better now?

Yes, please proceed, ma'am. Yes.

Yes, it is.

Yes. A couple of questions. So I've gone through your disclosures to stock exchange. Just want to understand, so it was only on the 26th that GST officials first approached the bank on certain -- with certain queries? Or were there communications even prior to that? And I mean, it's unfortunate, given what has happened to Mr. Gupta. But should the RBI insist on having a second line of leadership, including a CEO, what is the strategy that the company has?

So let me just take the second question first. The way every bank essentially functions and maybe every sound company, which essentially functions, there has been a second line, which typically gets built across and everyone works with a plan. Board on 27th Feb had -- did a special committee meeting of the Board and have assigned the interim leadership charge as Head of Organization to me and that has been put into public disclosure as well. As regards to -- we are a professionally driven bank that -- the testimony of that is also coming across in a manner the way our businesses have -- despite such a kind of an event, the way our businesses have been put across or have been holding across the weekend, which we just passed through on this. Anup, you want to take the first one?

Yes. Just to provide a sequence of events in terms of the GST officials. So the bank did receive a request for providing certain transaction information on 9th February from the GST officials, which we -- were provided by the bank -- timely provided by the bank. On 26th February, again, they requested certain more details or more information of -- for the program managers of the merchants in question. Bank cooperated with providing all the information to the authorities.

Just as a follow-up to this point, my question is that, I take the point that there is a -- there may have been a bit of an overreach with the arrest, et cetera. Why did the bank or Mr. Gupta not protest? Because the sections under which the -- he has been arrested are quite severe. And it talks about default above INR 5 crores and so on. And there are also news reports which suggest that transactions worth INR 13,000 crore are in question. Can you please explain the thought process that went through it? Why did the bank or Mr. Gupta not really defend the case prior to arrest? Did you guys not see it coming, to simply ask?

Okay. Let me just state -- say that -- and maybe I'll just go back to what I earlier said is, these are not -- nothing of GST and maybe you're also saying the same thing, nothing of GST tax evasion is pertaining to the bank. So numbers which I quoted earlier, I think me and Anup just mentioned it across that we're not able to correlate to that numbers and we put that in our submissions earlier as well. You have right -- you are right that there have been a couple of sections where the allegations have come across and these are sections pertaining to the GST Act. Our fundamental point is, does bank or Mr. Gupta carry any of these liabilities on account of the tax evasion? We do -- it cannot be as a process because it is the ownership of the respective program manager, et cetera. As regards to the protest, there is a process which is being followed of and let's just understand it of at current stage this is the allegations which have been made and there is a legal recourse and the due process is being followed in terms of the protest. So none of these claims have been accepted to the best of my understanding, either by Mr. Gupta and definitely not by the bank. And we are working across the judiciary system to ensure that we get a time or we get an opportunity rightfully to put our facts of the case.

When does he -- when would he present himself for the next bail application, sir?

I think as Anup earlier said, some of these matters are under sub judice and we may just refrain from giving any further information other than what we've already given.

The next question is from the line of [ Adarsh ] from Enam Asset Management Company Private Limited.

Just a couple of questions. First, you said real money has stopped in August. So post that impact of this numbers are already part of our 2Q and 3Q financials. Would that be appropriate to say?

Yes. I think this is a similar thing which someone else also asked, that does our quarter 3 number are excluding the real gaming? The answer is yes. And I do remember in our earlier earnings call as well, we just highlighted of that how Q3, which was different on account of the real gaming numbers being banned by us and the organization and the ecosystem, sorry.

Got it. And there is no consequent -- means -- again, the question was asked on digital revenues as to on a going-forward basis, the constituents of what is part of our digital revenues. If at some point of time, you all can just throw up industry-wise details of where the throughputs are coming, it will be helpful in terms of seeing the concentration of that revenue line item.

No, I think that's absolutely a fair point, Adarsh. As I said, at some stage, we will separately come across through our digital payments business momentum. And I do not know at current stage, we want to do any kind of a forward-looking thing. But one thing which I can tell is, the business for a couple of alleged program managers, the business just doesn't essentially fully get impacted by -- for anyone, not only for us but for anyone. I think the -- we will continue to run this product and run it in the right risk management framework, which we've done until now as well. As regards to a specific, yes, maybe in our subsequent call or in our earnings call or something like that, we may come and provide a perspective.

And you did mention account openings remain normal, even the balances are not impacted. Or is that [indiscernible]

Yes. I think, in fact, I just mentioned it off, typically, account opening is a process where weekends are -- the way kind of we run it across the weekends are slightly below average of the week days. It was not normal. It was slightly better than what we otherwise expected of and that's the function of our customer trust also which has. And balances are completely normal. There has been no abnormal activities, which we have seen across -- on our balances across last 2 days.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take the next question from the line of Ashwini Agarwal from Demeter Advisors LLP.

Just most of the questions have been answered. Just one clarification. There was a question from an earlier participant asking that Mr. Gupta is not a director in any private company. Just want to clarify that there is no relationship that he has with the alleged 3 program managers in terms of either having personal investment or a partnership with them. Could you please state that on record?

Yes, Ashwini, thanks. I think as a part of a normal banking process, MD, CEO or for that matter, any KMP or senior management professional cannot be having any kind of interest or -- in any of the business associates which are coming across. So by virtue of that, I can just put it across that there is nothing on record which we are aware of, or in any form, which we know that there has been any interest which Mr. Gupta carries in any of these partners.

Perfect. And one follow-up question. These 3 program managers, you continue to do business with them because post RMG being banned, they would have other sort of payments that they would be processing and things. So is that a fair assumption?

Shailesh, you may want to take that question?

Yes. Yes. Thanks, Ketan. So payment services are offered across different industries. One of the industries is real money game. Gaming, otherwise, you have apparel, you have furniture, you have online and e-commerce. There are multiple categories across which we make payment. So yes, real money gaming, it was banned. But the other categories of services are -- we have been engaged with them on a continuous basis, even after the ban on the real money game.

No, I think Shailesh, perhaps his question was, are we doing any business with these program managers? Maybe that's how I understood Ashwini's question.

Yes. Yes.

I would like to take -- Shailesh, maybe I'll take it. Ashwini, the answer to your question is, no. Unequivocal, no. We are not doing any such business whatsoever in any capacity.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take the next question from the line of [indiscernible], an individual investor.

I have 2 questions. One, is there any other individual or a employee or any related party to the bank under investigation or under arrest? #2, is there any kind of corporate rivalry or something which is the reason for this kind of case coming in and the MD of a bank getting arrested without any other notice. I mean these are -- these 2 points. If we can try one more question. How is Mr. Rishi Gupta? Is here in [indiscernible] Hospital, is what I read in online. We can clarify that also.

So let me just take the first question first. Is there any other allegation or any other arrest or anything else, which is involving any other official of the bank? The answer to that is, no.

The second is corporate rivalry.

Okay. On your question on corporate rivalry, I think it's all speculations. We clarified our stance and maybe earlier someone also asked that there are some sections which we also do not understand how it could apply for a bank MD, et cetera. So I do not know what is the underlying reason for that and that is something which is being -- the judicial process is being taken care of. As regards to the Rishi's current position, yes, he is under the judicial custody and in Hyderabad and that is being worked out.

We'll take the next question from Divyansh Gupta from Latent Advisors.

One quick question. So while the matter remains sub judice and it takes its own course of time, how does it affect Rishi Gupta's involvement with the small finance bank, let's say, not the setup process but let's say, ongoing operations whenever the bank operations are launched? Or in other words, how does the [indiscernible] criteria get affected or becomes applicable or disqualifies and if -- while this matter remains sub judice.

No, you're right. You yourself said the matter remains sub judice now. And as things stand now, one is, the bank has its own plan for small finance bank and we run a differentiated small finance bank. If the question is pertaining to about Rishi's role, Rishi Gupta's role in terms of the small finance bank, I think it's too early. We are into the second day of our process. And the judicial process will take its due course. And as and when we get clarifications on that, we want to -- we will be giving up our thought process and clarifications on the same. One point to reiterate, as things stand prima facie now and we have mentioned it in our statement as well, is there any kind of oversight which can -- or any kind of hangover which can come to the bank or Mr. Rishi Gupta in the capacity of him being an MD, CEO on the alleged case, our legal counsel's view is essentially no. How this all unfolds is, as you rightly said, sub judice and we will just keep -- update the market as and when things progress further.

We'll take the next question from the line of Anand Dama from Emkay Global Financial Services Limited.

Just a clarification. I think you already provided but just reconfirming is that the RMG business revenue in third quarter was 0 for us, as a whole, not only from the partners but for any [indiscernible]?

Yes, Anand, you are absolutely correct.

So then basically, there is no direct impact on the revenue for us from any RMG business at all?

Absolutely.

Any other revenue line item basically gets impacted because of this issue?

See, Anand, as clarified by Ketan in his speech, over the last 3 days, the volumes on both on account of CASA and other business volumes are intact. So we don't foresee any impact currently happening on discount.

The next question is from the line of [ Kaushik from AK Investments ].

I have a couple of questions related to digital payment. And so whatever the issue with respect to merchant is there, right, the merchant was not -- when he was onboarded for us in a premium payment, I mean last year. So that last year scrutiny has also come into the picture or only the April to August once when you specifically alluded, only those are in the scrutiny?

So in terms of the GST, currently, the GST officials have asked the information only for the current financial year and we have provided the -- all the information and data relating to that.

Okay. But the client was there with us from the start or last year full?

Yes, the client was not last year full, but he was there maybe for larger part of the year.

We'll take the next question from the line of Ashish Kumar from Infinity Alternatives.

My questions have been answered.

The next question is from the line of [ Hansini from NW18 ].

Just as a follow-up to what I asked earlier. Fino, I would -- since there is a GST, I would like to understand whether Fino's role was that of a service receiver or a service provider.

No, Sorry. So if I understand your question right, [ Hansini ], is that what was the role in the entire process of -- in this digital payment services. I would just ask Shailesh to explain this slightly more in detail so that there is a complete clarity on it.

Thanks, Ketan. So merchants typically want to give a payment option to their customers. I'll repeat again. Yes. Merchants typically want to give payment options to their customers. And they -- so in this case, we are service providers or service receivers in that case. And for that, the charge which is, the money which is collected is what comes to the bank, which is settled with the partner bank of the program manager or the merchant.

Okay. And when such a merchant is onboarded, with the -- I mean, the person already has an account with an existing bank, so would you do a full KYC at the start itself? Or would it be a partial KYC? At what point would you do a full KYC? And would you attribute all of whatever is happening right now only to problems coming from ban on RMG?

Yes, I think maybe Tejas is better equipped to answer. Tejas, why don't you just take this one.

[ Hansini ], to answer your question, yes, both at the time of pre-onboarding, post onboarding, there are multiple KYC checks which we do, which includes your merchant visit, site visit, enhanced due diligence, your GST certification, so on and so forth. So to answer your question, yes, there are pre-onboarding checks, post-onboarding checks from a complete KYC as per the prescribed norms, both at a regulatory level and through NPCI.

I'll just add. I think was -- I think there's one more part of the question, which was that do they have bank account with other banks? Yes. They have bank accounts with other banks where we do the settlement. And as Tejas rightly said that we do KYC over and above what the other banks do.

Would you attribute all of this only to accounts pertaining to real money gaming? Or is it something else also which got clustered in this, which is causing the problem for you?

This is specific to RMG, [ Hansini ] as we speak right now. And I think we should rest it there because that's where it has come from.

Ladies and gentlemen, as we have a strict close at 9:00 a.m. and that was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you. I would like to reiterate that Fino Payment Bank remains operationally stable, financially sound and underpinned by well-established governance architecture, rigorous checks and balances and process-led operations that ensures decisions and controls are institutionalized. Nothing in Fino Payment Bank works on an individual basis. So that's a reassurance, which I just want to give it across. In -- based on the events which have happened, we are working with all our stakeholders and we are thankful for the support which is coming across. Our business remains intact and we are operating with business as usual. And once again, thank you, everyone, for joining this call. And I hope me and my team have been able to provide the right clarification, which were required. Thank you.

Thank you, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Go India Advisors, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.