SUMMARY
Chawla put down his papers on Monday (April 8) and will be relieved from his duties by June 26, unless the two parties decide otherwise
The departing CEO and MD has cited personal reasons and a desire to explore better career prospects behind the decision
Paytm Payments Bank hasn’t yet disclosed who will be replacing Chawla
Fighting multiple battles on the regulatory front, Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) will now be bidding adieu to its CEO and managing director (MD) Surinder Chawla by June 26.
In its regulatory filing, the parent entity of the fintech major, On97 Communications (OCL), stated that Chawla put down his papers on Monday (April 8) and will be relieved from his duties by June 26, unless the two parties decide otherwise.
Per the filing, the departing CEO and MD cited personal reasons and a desire to explore better career prospects behind the decision. However, the company hasn’t yet disclosed who will be replacing Chawla.
Chawla joined the payments bank in February last year. He is a CA and has been associated with the banking space for nearly three decades. He has worked with big names like HDFC Bank, RBL Bank, Standard Chartered, ABN AMRO Bank, and Citibank.
Besides being the chief executive, Chawla was also an independent director of the PPBL board. With his departure, the payments bank board has been reconstituted with five independent directors, including an independent chairperson. There are no nominees from Paytm.
This is because Paytm and PPBL mutually agreed to terminate various inter-company agreements on March 1.
Days before both entities officially parted ways (on February 26), Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma stepped down from the Paytm payments bank board.
Sharma was serving as the part-time non-executive chairman and board member of the payments bank. Before Sharma, independent directors Manju Agarwal and Shinjini Kumar resigned from the board of the payments bank.
On January 31, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) from accepting deposits, credit transactions, or top-ups in any customer accounts (including prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, and NCMC cards) after March 15.
This came hot on the heels of the apex bank observing flaws in the internal detection mechanisms, reports of suspicious transactions, and an extraordinarily high number of user complaints at PPBL.
