Pine Labs

** Shares of India's Paytm PAYT.NS pares gain of as much as 7.3% to trade 1.05% higher; MobiKwik ONEM.NS reverses 6.5% jump to fall 1.2%, while Pine Labs PINL.NS drops 3.5%

** India's payments authority introduced 0.4% merchant discount rate (MDR) on select UPI merchant transactions above 2,000 rupees (about $20) from October 15, creating new revenue stream for payment firms after years of zero fees

** Brokerages broadly see framework as positive for payment ecosystem, but benefits vary depending on firms' role in transaction chain and share of eligible payments

** Goldman sees 40%-70% potential upside to FY28 EBITDA estimates for Paytm; JM Financial estimates 19% uplift under its base case and raises PT to 2,150 rupees from 1,950 rupees

** Ambit, however, prefers Pine Labs over Paytm, citing its more diversified revenue streams and favourable valuations; says direct impact of UPI MDR on Pine Labs is limited

($1 = 95.8900 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru)

(([email protected] | X: https://twitter.com/SurbhiMisra_ |;))

By Jaspreet Kalra and Ashwin Manikandan

MUMBAI, Sept 15 (Reuters) - India's payments authority is talking to lenders and payments firms on Tuesday to discuss levying charges on large transactions in the world's largest retail fast-payment system, three sources familiar with the plans told Reuters.

The consultations come after India changed its payments legislation on Monday, allowing firms to charge transactions of more than 2,000 rupees (about $20). All payments using the Unified Payments Interface have been free so far.

The move will benefit banks and payment firms in Asia's third-largest economy that posted 24 billion UPI payments totalling $311 billion in August.

The agenda for Tuesday's meeting includes the overall fees to be levied on payments to merchants and the split between banks, payment apps and aggregators, two of the three sources said.

Regulatory authorities, including the National Payments Corporation of India and the Reserve Bank of India, are leaning towards a 0.4% charge but the final rate and the split have yet to be decided, the third source said.

The second of the three sources said the banks could get 40% of the fees, with the remainder evenly divided between the payment app and the merchant payment services provider.

While person-to-merchant transactions are expected to be monetized, peer-to-peer transactions will remain free, the sources said.

All the sources requested anonymity as they are not authorized to speak to the media. The NPCI and RBI did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

INCHING CLOSER

Introduction of charges on UPI would benefit Paytm PAYT.NS and Pine Labs PINL.NS, open an additional revenue source for banks and boost prospects for IPO-bound PhonePe and Razorpay.

Analysts at Jefferies estimate that the fees could generate 50 billion rupees to 100 billion rupees annually for the payments ​industry.

India's payments landscape is dominated by apps that have received sizeable overseas investment such as Walmart-backed PhonePe PHOP.NS, Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google Pay, Paytm and Meta-backed META.O CRED.

($1 = 95.8675 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra, Ashwin Manikandan in Mumbai; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected]; +91-8769636545;))

Adds details

By Ashwin Manikandan

Sept 14 (Reuters) - India notified changes in its payments legislation on Monday, specifying that banks cannot impose charges on payments via Unified Payments Interface transactions of up to 2,000 rupees ($20.93).

The notification altered an earlier provision that prevented banks from charging fees on digital payments via India's popular UPI, paving the way for charges to be imposed on larger transfers.

A final decision on whether to introduce charges, and how they would be levied, has yet to be taken.

Here are some details:

• UPI, operated by the National Payments Corporation of India, is the world's largest retail fast-payment system by transaction volume, according to a 2025 ​IMF report.

• The new rule keeps UPI payments of up to 2,000 rupees free of charges.

• It paves the way for banks and payment companies to charge on larger UPI payments.

• Any fee, if introduced, would be paid by merchants rather than consumers, government officials have previously said.

• Banks and payment service providers stand to benefit from a potential new revenue stream.

• Jefferies estimated in August that merchant fees on larger UPI transactions could generate 50 billion rupees to 100 billion rupees annually for the payments industry.

• UPI, launched a decade ago, processed 24.51 billion transactions worth 29.82 trillion rupees in August. Google Pay and Walmart's PhonePe accounted for about three-fourths of monthly transaction volumes.

• Payments made using debit cards on India's homegrown RuPay network will remain free.

($1 = 95.5500 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan in New Delhi and Devika Nair in Bengaluru
Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Nia Williams)

(([email protected]))

By Ashwin Manikandan

MUMBAI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - India is preparing a framework that would let AI agents make small digital payments without approval for every transaction, three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially making UPI one of the world's largest networks with agentic payments.

While leading payment companies have launched such frameworks in the U.S., Europe, Singapore and Australia, a rollout on the popular Unified Payments Interface would also put India among the first countries to have a national infrastructure for agentic AI payments.

UPI, operated by the National Payments Corporation of India, is the world's largest retail fast-payment system by transaction volume, according to a 2025 IMF report.

It processed 24.51 billion transactions worth 29.82 trillion Indian rupees ($314.21 billion) in August, with Google Pay and Walmart's PhonePe accounting for around three-fourths of monthly transaction volumes.

The Unified Agent Protocol is likely to be unveiled next week at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the details are private.

The NPCI did not immediately respond to Reuters queries seeking comment.

EARLY USE CASES

Low-value, frequent purchases such as groceries are likely to be among the first use cases, the first source said, adding that e-commerce platforms are well-placed to capture early demand.

NPCI expects use cases to eventually become more sophisticated, the source said. For example, AI agents could place orders based on sale offers and discounts and make investments based on specified instructions around price thresholds.

The protocol is expected to draw on two existing UPI mechanisms — UPI Circle, which lets a primary account holder delegate payment authority to a secondary user such as an AI agent, and Reserve Pay, which lets customers block funds for multiple debits.

Banks currently cap such blocks at 10,000 rupees ($105.44) for up to 90 days, though this limit and its validity may be revisited for agentic use, the sources added.

NPCI is expected to offer infrastructure for merchants to integrate directly, letting customers set rule-based instructions for AI agents on when and how much to pay, with built-in spending limits, audit trails and identity checks, the sources said.

They added that the NPCI plans to build in a liability framework, but did not provide details.

GLOBAL PUSH

Global card networks Mastercard and Visa are also separately building similar agentic capabilities for payments in India, mirroring a global push by these companies to secure AI-driven commerce.

Mastercard completed its first authenticated agentic transaction in New Delhi in June.

Earlier this year, fintech firm Pine Labs PINL.NS launched its own agentic protocol, P3P, letting AI agents complete UPI payments after a single upfront authorisation.

($1 = 94.9050 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected];))

** Investec initiates coverage on Indian fintech firm Pine Labs PINL.NS at "buy" with TP of 200 rupees

** Brokerage says co's profit margins to improve to 14% by FY29E

** Adds co expects subscription revenues to grow at 10% CAGR over FY26-29E

** Says higher competition among incumbents can put pressure on co's profitability

** Adds, co might face cost pressure from cloud and other third party technology used to support the platform

** Shares last down 1.36% to 167.36 rupees

(Reporting by Anushka Rajvedi in Bengaluru)

((mailto: [email protected]))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, Aug 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India’s digital payments system doesn’t have to be free to be a public good. In 2020, four years after the country launched its home-grown Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, the government scrapped merchant fees to speed up adoption. This policy has been a roaring success. The decision taken this month to re-introduce charges is the best way to ensure the pioneering system, propped up by user-friendly interfaces of Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google Pay, Walmart's WMT.O PhonePe, Paytm PAYT.NS and others, thrives for the long term.

Over the past six years, monthly UPI transactions rose from 1 billion to 24 billion. Embraced by 555 million Indians, the system processed payments worth 29.87 trillion rupees ($313.16 billion) for the month of July. Now, instead of using cash or swiping a Visa V.N or Mastercard MA.N card to buy vegetables, a Starbucks coffee or an airline ticket, Indians use UPI applications on their mobile phones to make instant bank-to-bank transfers to friends and merchants. Cash is no longer king.

The government has not confirmed the new fees, but so long as they only apply to higher-value transactions and remain below the 0.9% and 1.5% charged on debit cards and credit cards, UPI will remain accessible and retain its popularity. A Reuters report, citing unnamed sources, says fees could be 0.3% to 0.5% on transactions above 2,000 rupees - roughly $21 - for merchants with annual turnover exceeding 15 million rupees. If so, that would apply to just 4% of total UPI volume in the year to the end of March 2026.

Without generating profits on everyday transactions, payments companies have less to invest back into maintaining digital infrastructure, fraud prevention and customer acquisition. Instead, they rely on other business lines including cross-selling loans, insurance and mutual funds to users and merchants. Growing this business has been a slog: Paytm, India's original digital payments poster child owned by One97 Communications, only turned a full-year profit in March 2026. PhonePe is preparing for a public listing but is still losing money. And the government's subsidy to support payments is also insufficient to incentivise companies to bring on board the next 500 million users in far-flung cities and towns.

What's more, the most popular UPI applications in India are funded through the deep pockets of U.S. tech giants: official data show Walmart and Alphabet combined supported 78% and 82% of the total volume and value of transactions last month. That leaves the payments system vulnerable to any change in foreign companies' commitment to the South Asian country. With digital payments habits firmly embedded in the public, it's the right time to introduce nominal fees.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India on August 10 passed a bill that will allow the re-introduction of merchant fees on transactions made through the country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

The Ministry of Finance clarified in a press release on August 8 that person-to-person transactions will remain free of charge and the charges will be “threshold based” for a “limited set of merchant transactions”.

India scrapped fees, known as the Merchant Discount Rate, on UPI transactions in January 2020 to accelerate the adoption of the homegrown payments network.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/[email protected]))

July 28 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS Q1 CONSOL PROFIT 195.7 MILLION RUPEES

• PINE LABS Q1 CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 7.37 BILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nnAZN4TAB4C

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

June 29 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS - INVESTS ABOUT 250 MILLION RUPEES IN UNIT VIA RIGHTS ISSUE

Source text: ID:nBSE2wqHrj

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

** Shares of Pine Labs PINL.NS fall as much as 4.6%, last down 1.5% at 151.3 rupees

** Co's high-margin gift card "breakage" revenue faces regulatory threat, a report by media outlet Entrackr says

** Qwikcilver, a major unit of the fintech firm, derives ~90% of its revenue through its gift card business; breakage income from unredeemed balances flows "almost directly to bottom line" - Entrackr report

** On April 22, India's RBI proposed that outstanding balances on expired/inactive prepaid instruments be transferred back to source/verified accounts

** Proposal directly impacts margins of co and could have a disproportionate effect on profitability, Entrackr says

** Co says the report is misleading and incorrect, and that breakage is not material to revenue or profit, in a filing with the exchanges

** Adds that it does not foresee impact from RBI's guidance on breakage income

** YTD, stock down ~37%

(Reporting by Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

June 11 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS - LAUNCHES P3P, INDIA'S FIRST AGENTIC PAYMENT PROTOCOL ON UPI

• PINE LABS - GULLAK GOES LIVE ON PINE LABS P3P AGENTIC PAYMENT PROTOCOL

Source text: ID:nBSE7GhZnM

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

** Shares of fintech firm Pine Labs PINL.NS rise 1.3% to 148 rupees

** Company posts quarterly profit on digital payment boost, a turnaround from a loss last year

** Analysts expect PINL to report a 21% increase in FY27 revenue, while earnings per share are projected to more than double, according to data compiled by LSEG

** Pine Labs trades at forward 12-month PE of 55.46 vs industry median of 19.10

** Four of six brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher; their median PT is 250 rupees

** Analysts at Jefferies say company's acquisition of Shopflo to strengthen check-out, customer analytics and order management offerings in the online D2C segment

** YTD, stock down 38.9% vs 3.9% decline in Nifty 500 Index .NIFTY500

(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

May 25 (Reuters) - Indian fintech firm Pine Labs PINL.NS posted a fourth-quarter profit on Monday, as a continued shift to digital payments drove demand.

The Temasek and Peak XV-backed company posted a profit of 593.6 million rupees ($6.23 million) for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of 289.1 million rupees a year earlier.

($1 = 95.2300 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

(([email protected]; +91 9558725583;))

May 12 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS LTD - ENTERS PHILIPPINES MARKET WITH GCASH FOR BUSINESS AS FIRST PAYMENTS PARTNER

Source text: ID:nBSE3p2ds2

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

** Emkay Global upgrades Indian fintech firm Pine Labs PINL.NS to "buy" from "reduce", maintains PT of 225 rupees

** Brokerage says working capital-related concerns are already factored into the stock price and believes PINL can lower its requirements by using bill discounting

** While devices business to show calibrated rev growth over long term, operationalisation contracts with oil marketing companies to drive slightly higher revenue growth from Q1 - Emkay

** Adds, PINL continues to see strong growth in issuing and acquiring businesses led by traction in international markets

** Avg rating of five analysts on PINL at "hold"; median PT is 255 rupees - LSEG-compiled data

** Stock up nearly 1% at 195.25 rupees; YTD down 18.4% vs rival Paytm's PAYT.NS nearly 10% decline

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

** Shares of Indian fintech platform Pine Labs PINL.NS jump as much as 4.98%, last up 2.72% at 182.39 rupees

** Citi initiates coverage with "buy", PT of 235 rupees, citing improving monetisation in India's payments sector and co's strength in merchant payments, prepaid solutions

** Citi expects co's growth to be driven by affordability solutions, value-added payment services and international expansion

** Forecasts revenue to grow at CAGR of ~17% and EBITDA to rise roughly 49% over FY26–FY28

** PINL rated "hold" on average by five analysts, median PT 255 rupees - LSEG data

** Stock down ~28% since listing on November 14, 2025; YTD, PINL drops 26%

(Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

April 8 (Reuters) - ** Shares of Pine Labs PINL.NS jump almost 9.5% to 171.36 rupees

** J.P.Morgan initiates coverage with "neutral", PT of 165 rupees

** Cites large and growing total addressable market, expects revenues to grow at 17% CAGR over FY26-28

** Adds, co's core profit driver likely to shift from device-led growth to value-added services, as card and affordability adoption rises in the premium-end of retail market

** Trading volume at 1.37 mln shares, vs 30-day average of 1.28 mln

** PINL rated "hold" on average by five analysts, median PT: 255 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, stock down about 28%

(Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

March 27 (Reuters) -

• INDIA CENBANK: IMPOSES MONETARY PENALTY OF 310,000 RUPEES ON PINE LABS

• RBI: IMPOSES PENALTY ON PINE LABS FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF DIRECTIONS ON PREPAID PAYMENT INSTRUMENTS

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

** Shares of Pine Labs PINL.NS up 2.8% at 179.5 rupees

** UBS initiates coverage on fintech platform with "Buy" and a target price of 250 rupees, implying an upside of 43% from stock's last close

** Brokerage says Pine Labs maintains a strong large-enterprise franchise with a durable moat driven by scale and deep integration with banks, OEMs, and merchants

** UBS says as Pine Labs' point-of-sale business has transitioned from hyper growth to industry aligned growth, its focus has shifted to monetising existing base

** Adds incremental growth to come from EMI financing and deeper penetration into non-electronics consumer categories

** Estimates revenue growth to sustain at an estimated ~20% CAGR over FY2026–FY2028, and says the current ~45% valuation discount to Paytm looks unjustified given Pine Labs' stronger profitability and improving earnings quality

** YTD, stock down 25%

(Reporting by Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

By Ashwin Manikandan and Jaspreet Kalra

MUMBAI, March 2 (Reuters) - Pine Labs PINL.NS will launch a stablecoin-backed prepaid card across nine countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia by the end of April, the fintech firm's chief executive told Reuters, marking the first attempt by an Indian payments major to tap the fast‑growing market.

The Temasek and Peak XV-backed company aims to launch in countries that have a "stablecoin-friendly stance", Amrish Rau said in an interview on Friday, without specifying which countries they would launch in.

Pine Labs does not plan to launch the product in India or China, Rau said.

The prepaid card, funded with stablecoins from consumers' digital wallets, will enable payments in local currencies through real-time conversion at the point of sale, the CEO said.

Global payment firms Stripe, PayPal PYPL.O and Klarna KLAR.N are already using stablecoins to facilitate cross-border payments as the instruments gain wider acceptance in emerging markets, topping $310 billion in market value, led by U.S. dollar-pegged tokens Tether and USDC.

“Cross‑border payments potentially are getting replaced today by stablecoins... these are very real trends which are taking off globally and we are absolutely building for it,” Pine Labs' Rau said.

The firm's plan to launch the stablecoin-backed prepaid card, the first such initiative by a listed Indian firm, has not been reported previously.

While India does not prohibit stablecoins, the local central bank has cautioned the instruments could weaken monetary policy management and promote illegal payments. Indian banks and payments firms such as Walmart-backed PhonePe PHOP.NS and Paytm PAYT.NS do not offer stablecoin-backed payments.

China last month banned unauthorised offshore issuance of yuan-pegged stablecoins and is cracking down on virtual currencies.

TECH-FOCUSED APPROACH

Headquartered in India's national capital region, Pine Labs offers payment solutions including point-of-sale machines to merchants for card payments.

The fintech firm's shares have fallen about 28% since their trading debut in November amid increased competition in the digital payments sector, according to analysts.

Pine Labs has been expanding its footprint with clients in about 20 countries, with the overseas business adding up to about 17% of its revenue, Rau said. The firm's gross revenue rose 24% on year to 7.44 billion rupees ($81.4 million) in the December quarter.

The firm seeks to focus on AI-based payments, cross-border expansion and stablecoin experiments, Rau said.

“All tech companies are into stablecoins, they are into AI, they are into cross‑border. That’s the way to go... If you don’t capture that opportunity, Indian fintechs are going to get left behind."

($1 = 91.4300 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan and Jaspreet Kalra in Mumbai; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected];))

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS AWARDED MULTI-YEAR CONTRACTS BY 3 INDIAN OMCS

• CONTRACTS FROM BPCL, HPCL, AND IOCL

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SHR2B

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];;))

Feb 5 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS LTD - GETS TOTAL TAX DEMAND FOR 373.3 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nNSE1jRSLz

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];;))

Jan 28 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS Q3 CONSOL PROFIT 423.9 MILLION RUPEES

• PINE LABS Q3 CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 7.44 BILLION RUPEES

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

Jan 26 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS LTD - WIO BANK PARTNERS WITH CO

Source text: ID:nNSE8nvkP

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

Jan 23 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• PINE LABS LTD - INVESTS 639.9 MILLION RUPEES IN BROKENTUSK TECHNOLOGIES

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Pine Labs Ltd PINL.NS:

• RBI APPROVES UNIT SETU'S PROPOSAL TO BUY 100% STAKE IN AGYA TECHNOLOGIES

Source text: ID:nNSE1sJSMy

Further company coverage: PINL.NS

(([email protected];))