Paytm COO & President Bhavesh Gupta resigns; to take on advisory role

Gupta’s resignation comes just as the firm is set to announce its annual and fourth quarterly results. Gupta resigned from his position at the company citing personal reasons.

“Many operations, including lending, have taken a hit at the company after the regulator took action on Paytm Payments Bank. This may have led to some resignations. The strength of Paytm was the payments bank, and that differentiated the company from the rest of the fintechs in the country,” a person in the know said.

The person added that the company may see a few more exits of a similar kind in the next few weeks.

Paytm did not respond to emails till press time.

Gupta’s resignation follows a series of high-level exits at the Noida-based company after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took action on its associate entity, Paytm Payments Bank, in January this year.

Exits at the company include the resignation of Paytm Payments Bank’s managing director and chief executive officer Surinder Chawla in April this year.

The same month, Sumit Mathur, the company’s chief marketing officer (CMO), quit the company after a year-long stint to join Glanbia Performance Nutrition.

Similarly, the chief executive at Paytm Money, Varun Sridhar, stepped down from his position last week.

Sridhar has transitioned to the role of chief executive officer at Paytm Services Private Limited (PSPL), a subsidiary responsible for distributing mutual funds and other wealth management products.

Gupta’s resignation will be effective as of the close of business hours on May 31 this year.

One97 Communications (OCL), the company that operates the Paytm brand, said in a regulatory filing that Gupta would continue to function in an advisory role in the chief executive officer’s office at the company.

“I have decided to take a career break due to personal reasons. I look forward to supporting Paytm in an advisory role. I am confident of Paytm reaching new heights given the depth of leadership in payments and financial services that has been built over the past few years,” Gupta said.

It is still unclear who will succeed Gupta in his position as the company’s president and COO after May 31, 2024.

Paytm had elevated Gupta to the position of president and COO in May last year. He was responsible for leading key verticals such as lending, insurance, payments – online and offline, consumer payments, along with other obligations such as driving initiatives, including user growth, operational risk, fraud risk, and compliance.

In his previous role, he served as the senior vice president at the company. Gupta joined Paytm in August 2020.

Meanwhile, the company also announced senior leadership changes. Varun Sridhar, who was heading the Paytm Money business, has been transitioned to the role of chief executive officer of Paytm Services Private Ltd. Similarly, Rakesh Singh has been appointed as chief executive officer of Paytm Money.

“I am also excited about the direction that we have taken under the leadership of Varun to expand Paytm’s role in deepening the penetration of mutual funds and wealth management products in our country. I welcome Rakesh to Paytm Wealth business, where we are committed to building world-class technology-led wealth offerings for young Indians,” Paytm managing director and chief executive officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in a statement.

In the months following crippling restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank, the firm has rejigged its leadership at multiple levels.

For instance, Vijay Shekhar Sharma stepped down from the board of Paytm Payments Bank in February this year as part-time non-executive chairman and board member of the bank.

The payments bank reconstituted its board by inducting former bureaucrats and public sector bankers.

The new set of independent directors on Paytm PB’s board includes former Central Bank of India chairman and managing director (MD) Srinivasan Sridhar, retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Debendranath Sarangi, former Bank of Baroda executive director Ashok Kumar Garg, and retired IAS Rajni Sekhri Sibal. All of them have recently joined as independent directors.

First Published: May 05 2024 | 6:04 PM IST