Surinder Chawla, MD and CEO of Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL) has resigned as the head of company on April 8, 2024, on account of “personal reasons and to explore better career prospects”.

Chawla will be relieved from the payments bank from the close of business hours on June 26, 2024, parent company One97 Communications notified the exchanges.

The news comes amid reports of heavy attrition at the bank, which was forced to wind down operations effective March 15 after the Reserve Bank of India’s crackdown for several regulatory violations with respect to inadequate KYC, monitoring end use of funds and unauthorised linkages between the operations of the bank and the payments platform, Paytm.

One 97 has since migrated its businesses away from the bank, and has cut inter-linkages and dependence on the payments bank’s guardrails. Meanwhile, operations of the bank have been wound down but the bank licence has still not been revoked. The parent company has also managed to secure the TPAP licence from NPCI for third-party UPI services. 

“As informed earlier, nearly all agreements between the Company and PPBL have been terminated as per our disclosure on March 1, 2024 and the board of PPBL has been reconstituted with five independent directors including an Independent Chairperson and no nominees from the Company,” the notification said.

In February 2024, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma stepped down from the board of the payments bank. The board was reconstituted and ex-Central Bank of India Chairman Srinivasan Sridhar, retired IAS officer Debendranath Sarangi, former Executive Director of Bank of Baroda Ashok Kumar Garg, and retired IAS Rajni Sekhri Sibal were appointed as independent directors.

Paytm said that it continues to collaborate with banking partners to enhance merchant acquiring and UPI services.

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