Vijay Shekhar Sharma steps down as director, Paytm Financial Services

Vijay Shekhar Sharma has resigned as director, Paytm Financial Services. Rohit Lohia, who joined Paytm in June, 2019, as vice president of Paytm’s lending business, will be stepping into Sharma’s shoes.

Although Sharma has submitted a letter of resignation to the board, he will continue to be the chairman and CEO of One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm.

In his letter to the board, Sharma has cited ‘other preoccupations’ as the reason for his resignation. But according to media reports, his resignation came in the wake of Reserve Bank of India’s regulation that prohibits a chairman of a payments bank to also hold a directorial position in an NBFC (Non-banking finance services) unless it is the subsidiary of the bank.

Lohia was the chief digital officer at CoinTribe Technologies, a credit-based SME lending marketplace.

Paytm Financial Services was launched two months after Paytm Payments Bank was launched in 2017. Since then, Sharma was holding a directorial position at Paytm’s financial services business. Though this resignation is a good sign in terms of governance and compliance by the Company, it also indicates that the Company was not following the regulations laid down by the RBI.