BENGALURU, March 15 (Reuters) - Shares of India's Paytm rose 5% in pre-open trade on Friday, a day after the country's payments authority granted it a third-party application provider license, which will enable it to facilitate payments after its banking unit ceases operations.

The license will allow customers to continue using the Paytm app for payments through India's popular unified payment interface (UPI), after Paytm Payments Bank ceases operations by March 15, following regulatory action due to non-compliance with certain norms. (Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)