PAYTM ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP CHANGES; RAKESH SINGH NAMED NEW PAYTM MONEY CEO

One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, today announced leadership changes to double down on its payment and financial services offerings, months after the regulatory crackdown on its payments bank.

As part of the changes, the fintech said its President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Bhavesh Gupta, will resign from his position, and move to an advisory position. As per his letter posted to exchanged, Gupta resigned for “personal reasons,” and said the move was “in line with on-going conversations.” His last day with Paytm would be on May 31, 2024.

Bhavesh Gupta has been with Paytm for nearly four years, and was elevated to the position of President and COO last year. He was responsible for leading verticals of lending, insurance, payments–online and offline, consumer payments and drive key initiatives including user growth, operations risk, fraud risk and compliance.

Gupta had stepped down as a nominee director on the board of Paytm Payments Bank earlier in February, along with other One97 nominees on the board, a month after the Reserve Bank of India placed severe restrictions on the bank.

In other key changes, Paytm said Varun Sridhar, former head of Paytm Money Ltd, will transition to Chief Executive Officer of Paytm Services Private Limited, focusing on the distribution of mutual funds and wealth management products. He will be replaced by Rakesh Singh as the new Chief Executive Officer of Paytm Money, One97 said in its exchange notification.

Rakesh Singh was previously the CEO of the stock broking business at Fisdom, and has held key management positions with ICICI Securities and Standard Chartered Bank.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO - Paytm said, “Our focus on payments and lending is stronger than ever, and I will work with the seasoned leaders that we have in each of our businesses to execute our plans.”

"As we aim to scale and position ourselves among the top brokers in India, our focus will be on ramping up acquisition and delivering stable, innovative products at a low cost transparent price. Focusing on growing an already profitable operation with full compliance to SEBI regulations will be a top priority,” said Rakesh Singh, the newly appointed CEO of Paytm Money.

Paytm said the leadership change were “to double down on payments & financial services offerings,” and to widen the leadership team to work directly with Paytm CEO and senior management. It added, that the move would also strengthen succession planning , and strengthen its group structure for sustainability and regulatory compliance.

The company has reported movement to the Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) model for UPI Payments and is now working with Yes Bank, Axis Bank, State of India and HDFC Bank. For loan and credit card distribution, the company works with NBFC and bank partners.

2024-05-04T15:26:11Z dg43tfdfdgfd