Sudhanshu Jain, former deputy general manager at private-sector lender ICICI Bank Ltd, has joined Vijay Shekhar Sharma-founded Paytm Payments Bank as chief financial officer, a person familiar with the development told VCCircle.
Jain, who headed borrowings at ICICI Bank's foreign currency desk, will oversee finance and strategy at the payments bank, the person added.
Jain confirmed his appointment, but refused to divulge further details on the role. Paytm and ICICI Bank did not respond to email queries seeking confirmation.
An alumnus of St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, Jain started his career with pharmaceutical company Ipca Laboratories Ltd as an internal auditor in 2002. He joined ICICI Bank as an audit manager in 2004. In 2008, he moved to the bank's profit planning and budget department before being elevated to deputy general manager of the foreign currency division.
After getting delayed by almost a year, Paytm Payments Bank went live this May on a select, invite-only basis. It plans to expand its presence to 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in the first year. It is offering customers an interest rate of 4% per annum and cashback on deposits.
In August 2016, Paytm's parent One97 Communications Ltd created two separate entities—Paytm E-Commerce Pvt. Ltd and Paytm Payments Bank Ltd—to run its e-commerce and banking services, respectively.
In May, Paytm raised $1.4 billion from Japan’s SoftBank Group to expand its user base and build a suite of financial services products.
The same month, it formed a five-member board for the payments bank. PV Bhaskar, former executive director of the Reserve Bank of India; Ash Lilani, co-founder and managing partner at Saama Capital; and GS Sundarajan, a former director at Shriram Group, joined the board as independent directors. Paytm founder Sharma came on board as non-executive chairman while Renu Satti, Paytm Payment Bank’s chief executive officer, also joined the board.
In July, the company had appointed Kiran Vasireddy as chief operating officer of its payments business.
"Newly-started payment banks by Vodafone, Airtel and Paytm are scouting for young talent, albeit with around 10 years' experience. Also, small payment banks like AU Small Finance Bank and IDFC Bank are trying to grow in new areas, which will lead to exits at traditional banks and NBFCs," said a Mumbai-based placement consultant who didn't wish to be identified.
"Traditional banks are under lots of pressure to cut costs. At the same time, new-generation banks are scaling up, which will make this space interesting for the next couple of years," the consultant added.
