Paytm Bank Gets RBI Nod For Surinder Chawla As New CEO

Chawla is currently serving as head of branch banking at RBL Bank. “It was on the cards, and the role transition at RBL Bank has been going on for quite some time," a third person aware of the development said, seeking anonymity.

Chawla spent nearly a decade at RBL Bank after working for over 11 years at HDFC Bank, where he held positions such as head of retail liabilities product group and senior executive vice-president.

Queries sent to spokespeople for Paytm and the Reserve Bank of India did not elicit any response till press time. Chawla did not immediately respond to a query sent to him via his LinkedIn account.

Paytm Payments Bank CEO Satish Kumar Gupta retired in October 2022. Since then, Deependra Singh Rathore has been serving as interim CEO of the payments bank.

In October, Paytm said that the bank would announce the “new full-time CEO after receiving regulatory approvals."

The payments bank, in which Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns a 51% stake, and the remaining is owned by One97 Communications Ltd, has been under regulatory scrutiny for many months.

In May, RBI asked Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting new customers with immediate effect. “The bank has also been directed to appoint an IT audit firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of its IT system," the RBI then said in its statement, adding that the action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the bank.

In November, Paytm confirmed that the payments bank received an RBI-mandated IT auditor’s report.

“As per the preliminary assessment carried out by the bank management team of the above, we are informed that the observations are largely around the continued strengthening of IT outsourcing processes and operational risk management," Paytm said in its Q2 earnings report. The ban on new customer onboarding has not been lifted by the Reserve Bank.