Vijay Shekhar Sharma resigns as Paytm Payments Bank Chairman

Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) has reconstituted its board and Vijay Shekhar Sharma has stepped down as part-time non-executive Chairman to enable the transition, One 97 Communications Ltd (OCL), the parent firm of Paytm, informed on Monday.   

Former Central Bank of India Chairman Srinivasan Sridhar, retired IAS officer Debendranath Sarangi, former Executive Director of Bank of Baroda Ashok Kumar Garg, and retd IAS Rajni Sekhri Sibal have joined the Board as Independent Directors. 

"Vijay Shekhar Sharma has also resigned from the Board of Paytm Payments Bank to enable this transition. PPBL has informed us that they will commence the process of appointing a new Chairman," OCL said in a statement.

The announcement comes weeks after RBI barred Paytm Payments Bank from receiving deposits and credits from customers after March 15 for persistent non-compliance and continued material supervisory concerns in the bank.

The RBI earlier this month asked customers as well as merchants of Paytm Payments Bank to shift their accounts to other banks by March 15. The earlier deadline was February 29, which the RBI has extended by 15 days, keeping in view the interest of customers.

Earlier today, Reuters reported that Paytm is likely to partner with Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), and Yes Bank for processing transactions via unified payments interface (UPI).

The talks to onboard banking partners are on, and Paytm wants to start this process with large banks that have the technological bandwidth to handle large volumes seamlessly, sources told Reuters.

"Paytm is likely to onboard Axis Bank as a banking partner first, and then rope in more banks," the second source told Reuters, adding that the NPCI will take about a month's time to check the bank's technology and related infrastructure.

Paytm is the third-largest app for UPI payments in the country, processing 1.6 billion monthly transactions, according to data available on the NPCI website. PhonePe and Google Pay are the two largest.

On February 16, One97 Communications shifted its nodal account to Axis Bank from Paytm Payments Bank to allow continuity of Paytm QR, Soundbox, and card machine. The nodal account of Paytm is like a master account in which all its customers and merchant transactions are settled.

(With inputs from Karishma Asoodani)