Paytm :Paytm aims to clock Rs 10,000 crore in deposits in the next three years from the payments bank business and had announced plans to hire 3,000 staff

Paytm aims to clock Rs 10,000 crore in deposits in the next three years from the payments bank business and had announced plans to hire 3,000 staff

Paytm, India's largest mobile payments platform, has shortlisted a candidate to lead its payments bank and is bringing on board new hires as it strengthens senior management for the new business, which has a starting budget of Rs 400 crore.

The company, which was expected to start the new business by March end but has now pushed it back to the new financial year, said it has hired former Airtel executive Saurabh Sharma as vice-president and he will handle merchant and agent acquisition, a critical component for the payments bank business. Sharma was heading market operations for m-commerce at Airtel Money, part of the country's largest telecom services provider Airtel, before joining Paytm.

Following Sharma, Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl from Bain & Company will join the payments provider as assistant vice-president and will lead the branch designs and their roll out across the country. KMPG's Neha Gupta is also set to join in a few weeks as deputy general manager to handle business operations, a mid-management position at the payments bank, the company said.

"We've shortlisted people for the CEO position and hopefully we should be able to communicate it when the RBI gives us a go ahead," Paytm chief executive officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma told ET, adding that appointments to the payments bank's senior leadership positions are nearly complete.

"We've decided to put the budget for the payments bank at Rs 400 crore for two years," he said.

India's fast-growing unicorns are poaching talent from across industries, including online rivals, consulting firms and consumer firms, as they look to build strong management teams for critical operations. Paytm aims to clock Rs 10,000 crore in deposits in the next three years from the payments bank business and had announced plans to hire 3,000 staff.

About 20-25 senior and mid-management level executives have been hired to kick-start the payments bank operations. However, the company is still looking for candidates to fill positions at the finance, risk, treasury and compliance functions levels.

"We're lucky that without giving a hiring mandate to a search agency, people of Indian origin from Singapore, London who want to come back to India, are pinging us," Sharma said.

Among senior executives who've already joined Paytm for the banking business are Vikas Purohit, who was earlier with Amazon and joined as vice-president responsible for branch and business correspondent network. Also joined as vice-president are Kshitij Sanghi, former McKinsey employee who will look at technology, and Varun Khullar, who worked for ITC earlier, who will be responsible for partnerships.

Sharma said the basic offerings have also been decided, and the fundamental approach is to keep things simple and easy for consumers to understand.

One of the offerings could include cardless credit card backed by a bank, which could be connected to a customer's Paytm wallet, Sharma said. The company has made some of its key investments in fin-tech, and Sharma said that while core banking investment was the least, purchasing technology hardware alone billed up about Rs 30 crore, taking longer than expected.

In August, the RBI granted payments bank licences to 11 out of 42 applicants including Paytm, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. The business potential from serving millions of unbanked Indians to further the financial inclusion initiative of the government and the Reserve Bank had attracted most of the top business houses.

While payments banks can't lend to their customers, they can take deposits, convey remittances and dispense payments to recipients, making them ideal for migrant workers who need to send money home.

Source:BankingUpdates