Former SBI boss Rajnish Kumar joins BharatPe as chairman

Fintech firm BharatPe on Tuesday announced the appointment of Rajnish Kumar, former chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), as the chairman of its board.

In his role as the chairman, Kumar will define the company’s short-term and long-term strategy besides working closely with other board members and customer experience officers (CXOs) on business and regulatory initiatives, a release from the company said.

He will also advice the company’s management on matters related to business performance and corporate governance.

Rajnish Kumar was the chairman of India’s largest public-sector lender SBI from October 2017 to October 2020. He has also served as the Managing Director of the National Banking Group and the Managing Director (Compliance and Risk) at SBI.

Prior to this, he headed the merchant banking division of the SBI – SBI Capital Markets Limited as Managing Director and CEO. Kumar is also an independent non-executive director on the boards of HSBC Bank Asia and L&T Infotech.

BharatPe co-founder and Managing Director Ashneer Grover said that the team at BharatPe looks forward to working under Kumar’s ‘invaluable guidance’.

“It is a matter of great validation and pride for us that one of the biggest stalwarts of the Indian banking industry has agreed to join BharatPe as the chairman of the board. We look forward to invaluable guidance from Rajnish Kumar as we build India’s largest digital credit provider. We are confident that under his able guidancre, BharatPe will attain newer heights and build the best-in-class fintech for the new India,” said Grover.

Meanwhile, Kumar said, “This company has a huge opportunity ahead and it would be great to work closely with its young and talented team to build financial services for the India of tomorrow.”

Edited by Mehak Agarwal

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