Barclays' Krishna Hegde to head key division at Paytm's payments bank

One97 Communications Ltd, which operates mobile wallet Paytm, has appointed Barclays executive Krishna Hegde to head the consumer investment products division of its new payments bank.

"Hegde will be spearheading a vital area of growth for the payments bank by leading and building, bottom up, the savings account investment portfolio, including mutual funds and money market funds," said Amit Sinha, vice president at Paytm.

Sinha said the company is gearing up for the launch of its payments bank in the second half of the year.

Prior to joining Paytm, Hegde was managing director of credit research at Barclays.

The development was first reported by The Economic Times.

Hegde's appointment comes after former Reserve Bank of India executive Shinjini Kumar was last week hired as the CEO of Paytm's payments bank.

In August 2015, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of One97, was named as one of 11 applicants which received the RBI's in-principle nod to get a payments bank licence.

In December 2015, Paytm appointed former Amazon executive Vikas Purohit as vice president and former Airtel executive Saurabh Sharma as head of the merchant and agent acquisition division of its payments bank.

One97 will separate its e-commerce and payments businesses. The company, which counts Alibaba's Alipay and SAIF Partners among its large shareholders, will put the payments business under a new company called Paytm Payment Bank Ltd, in which Sharma will own a majority (51 per cent) stake.