MAM
KnightsAD expands to Sri Lanka and Middle East
MUMBAI: KnightsAD Digital Media Associates recently announced its foray into Sri Lanka and the Middle Eastern markets of the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar. The company has seen close to 20 per cent month-on-month growth since its launch in January 2016 across India markets.
KnightsAD CEO Malik Gilani said, “We are ecstatic to announce our global expansion. We hope to provide our partners a global platform and extended reach.”
With Sri Lanka featuring among the top 10 countries in the world for mobile advertising growth (source, ExchangeWire) and the Middle East showing a growing mobile e-commerce trend (source, Adotas), the markets are ripe for content players to leverage this growth by extending their mobile and WAP advertising reach.
KnightsAD has partnered with leading telecoms and content companies in Sri Lanka and the Middle East; telecom partners include Oreedoo in Kuwait and Qatar, DU in the UAE as well as Dialog in Sri Lanka. With a conversion rate of up to 75000 a month, KnightsAD has quickly become one of the networks with the highest success rates and now widest reach.
With this expansion, the company hopes to replicate the success they have seen in India for content partners like Hungama, Nazara, Mauj and Saregama, to name a few.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
