BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s Paytm said on Tuesday that Surinder Chawla had resigned as the chief executive officer and managing director of its banking unit Paytm Payments Bank “on account of personal reasons”.
The company said the resignation would be effective from June 26 but did not shed light on any potential successor to Chawla.
The exit follows the stepping down of Paytm’s top boss Vijay Shekhar Sharma as non-executive chairman of Paytm Payments Bank, as part of a major board overhaul that followed a central bank clampdown on the digital payments firm’s banking unit.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had asked Paytm Payments Bank to wind down its operations by March 15 due to persistent compliance issues and supervisory concerns, triggering a meltdown in Paytm’s stock.
Paytm, formally known as One 97 Communications, and its banking unit also mutually agreed to end various inter-company agreements, as part of Paytm’s efforts to cut ties with its troubled banking unit.
However, as a relief to the digital payments firm, India’s payments authority granted a third-party app licence to Paytm, enabling it to facilitate payments after its banking unit ceased operations.
Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Yes Bank act as payment system provider banks to Paytm, the National Payments Corporation of India had said.
Paytm’s shares are down nearly 50% since the RBI’s order against its banking unit. They settled 2% lower on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
