Fino Payments Bank Slips Into Red, Reports ₹14 Cr Loss In Q1

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Fino Payments Bank slipped into the red in the Q1 FY27, posting a net loss of ₹13.7 Cr against a profit of ₹17.8 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, the bank reported a profit of ₹7.1 Cr in the March quarter. Fino Payments Bank’s total income declined 32.3% to ₹306.9 Cr in Q1 FY27 from ₹453.5 Cr in the corresponding quarter last year. On a QoQ basis, total income fell 9.7% from ₹340 Cr. EBITDA plunged 30% YoY and 23% QoQ to ₹43.1 Cr. The decline was primarily driven by a fall in other income, which includes fees and commissions from current account and savings accounts (CASA), micro-ATM and AePS transactions, domestic remittances, debit cards, third-party products, business correspondent banking, digital payments, and cash management services. Other income declined 40.2% YoY to ₹234.6 Cr during the quarter. However, interest income increased 18.4% to ₹72.2 Cr from ₹61 Cr in Q1 FY26. The payments bank’s total expenditure, excluding provisions and contingencies, fell 25.2% to ₹320.6 Cr from ₹428.8 Cr in the year-ago period. "Decline in revenue and profitability is primarily on account of recalibration of Digital Payments Services – B2B UPI P2M vertical and cash driven transaction business," Fino said. In the quarter, digital payment services remained non-operational due to "strategic recalibration". The company registerd a revenue of ₹50 lakh from the service in the quarter, down 99% YoY. It is expected to relaunch the services by Q4 FY27. Important to note that 23% of Fino's total revenue in the year-ago quarter was driven by its digital payments services. The company said that UPI continued to impact transaction business (Remittance, MATM & AePS), reporting a 50% YoY decline in revenue and 44% decrease in throughput. Important to note that Fino was impacted significantly earlier this year in February after its erstwhile CEO Rishi Gupta was arrested the Hyderabad unit of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) on charges of alleged GST evasion under the CGST and state GST laws. The DGGI alleged that Gupta was among the “masterminds” of a syndicate routing funds from illegal online gaming platforms through shell entities linked to Fino. The alleged evasion is pegged at ₹840 Cr, based on ₹3,000 Cr in transactions. During the quarter, Gupta stepped down as the MD and CEO while erstwhile CFO Ketan Merchant took charge as the interim CEO of the payments bank. “Q1 FY27 is the beginning of the consolidation phase of Fino, wherein the focus is on retail business, building small finance bank and enhancing low-cost liabilities through aggressive customer acquisition and referral lending business... We remain committed to building a differentiated, AI driven technology-led liability first banking franchise leading to value creation for all stakeholders in the long run," the interim CEO said. Fino’s loan referral segment, which it sees as a pilot for its proposed small finance bank (SFB), saw disbursals surge 214% YoY to ₹ 628 Cr, nearly 50% of the total disbursals in FY26. The company said it made a "significant progress" on the SFB front by hiring senior credit professionals and onboarding key technology providers for lending operations, loan management system (LMS) and credit underwriting. "Fino remains firmly on track to meet the required conditions within the stipulated timeline," it added. The bank received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in December 2025 to transition into a SFB. Shares of Fino ended today’s trading session 1.9% higher at ₹163.75 apiece on the BSE.

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