Vijay Shekhar Sharma Steps Down From Paytm Payments Bank Board
One97 Communications Ltd. has withdrawn its nominee, Sharma from the bank's board as part-time non-executive chairman and board member.
Paytm Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has resigned from the board of Paytm Payments Bank, according to an exchange filing on Monday.
He was a part-time non-executive chairman and board member for the bank.
In addition, One97 Communications Ltd. has also withdrawn its nominee, Bhavesh Gupta, from the bank's board as a director and board member. Currently, he is the president and COO of Paytm.
"OCL withdraws its nominee from the Paytm Payments Bank Board and Vijay Shekhar Sharma steps down as part-time non-executive chairman and board member; PPBL's future business is to be led by a reconstituted board," it read.
With this, OCL has now reconstituted a new board with four new people joining, the filing said. These include:
Srinivasan Sridhar, former Chairman of the Central Bank of India
Debendranath Sarangi, a retired IAS officer
Ashok Kumar Garg, former Executive Director of the Bank of Baroda
Rajni Sekhri Sibal, retired IAS.
All have also joined as independent directors.
"OCL supports PPBL’s move of opting for a board with only independent and executive directors by removing its nominee. The Company has been separately informed that Vijay Shekhar Sharma has also resigned from the Board of Paytm Payments Bank to enable this transition," the filing said.
Paytm Payments Bank will also enable the process of appointing a new chairman soon.
The new board of the bank now consists of these four new appointments along with Arvind Kumar Jain, independent director and former ED of Punjab & Sind Bank, and Surinder Chawla, MD and CEO of Paytm Payments Bank.
According to a person with knowledge of the matter, the new board has been brought in to focus solely on compliance and to bring the bank out of issues with the RBI.
It would adopt a zero-tolerance policy. There would also be complete decoupling with parent Paytm, except for the capital component, the people quoted above said.
The new board also wants to return the payments bank to its former glory, the people added.
The development comes in response to the on-going regulatory clampdown on Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. on Jan. 31. The RBI, however, recently extended the deadline for Paytm Payments Bank restrictions to March 15, for the benefit of customers.
