One 97 Communications Ltd, which owns Paytm, has on Tuesday appointed Bhavesh Gupta, Senior Vice President as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the fintech major.
In his new role, Gupta will be responsible to lead verticals of lending, insurance, payments – online and offline, consumer payments and drive key initiatives including user growth, operations risk, fraud risk and compliance. Gupta will be reporting to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Paytm.
In 2020, he was appointed as the CEO of Paytm’s lending business. In terms of his professional experience, Bhavesh Gupta comes with 25 years of experience in financial services building businesses in payments, technology and analytics platforms, retail loans, digital lending, SME banking, retail banking etc.
Prior to joining Paytm in 2020, Gupta held multiple leadership roles including CEO of Clix Capital (formerly known as GE Capital), Head of SME & Business Banking at IDFC Bank and was also associated with ICICI bank in various roles. Gupta is a graduate from Delhi University and completed his MBA from Institute of Management Studies, Indore.
Last month, Paytm's parent company, One 97 Communications Limited, approved the appointment of SR Batliboi and Associates LLP (SRB), commonly known as Ernst and Young (EY), as its new statutory auditor for a tenure of five years. SRB will replace PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as the latter's five-year term will expire this year.
Upon appointment, SRB will hold the office for a period of five years from the conclusion of the 23rd annual general meeting (AGM) to be held this year till the conclusion of the 28th AGM.
According to the company, SRB's appointment as the new statutory auditor for a tenure of five years is expected to provide a fresh perspective to Paytm's auditing procedures and ensure transparency in the company's financial reporting.
Paytm boss Vijay Shekhar Sharma recently said that he aims the company to become "free cashflow positive in the near future”.
In a letter to shareholders, which Sharma shared on Twitter, he added that in 2023, with advent of early-stage AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), there will be more opportunities to bring efficiencies in business and AI-first offerings.
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