Paytm gets Ruchita Taneja Aggarwal and Priya Karnik from Citibank for its payments bank

One97 Communications Pvt Ltd, which runs mobile payments and commerce platform Paytm, has roped in Ruchita Taneja Aggarwal and Priya Karnik of Citibank for its yet-to-launch payments bank.

Aggarwal will head banking operations while Karnik will spearhead product development for banking operations separately, a statement from Paytm said.

Before joining Paytm, Aggarwal was director of treasury and trade solutions (TTS) and Singapore head for regional product sales at Citibank, while Karnik was director of treasury and trade solutions, regional implementation.

Aggarwal holds an MBA from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai, and has almost 14 years of experience in the field of payments and finance. Karnik, on the other hand, is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, with 13 years of experience in payments and cash management.

"It is no secret that Paytm is expanding and diversifying at an exponential rate. Joining the organisation gives me an unparalleled opportunity to work with some of the most well-known industry thought leaders who are trying to build something new and unique," Karnik added.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who received an in-principle nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a payments bank last year, is looking to start the new business by August. One97 will separate its e-commerce and payments businesses. The company 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.

Payments bank is a new set of niche banks that would seek to expand financial inclusion in the country.

The company which raised funding from Alibaba Group and Ant Financial in September 2015, has made a string of senior-level hires lately to strengthen its leadership team for the payments bank. Last month it roped in former RBI deputy general manager Vipin Surelia as vice president to spearhead its risk and compliance division.

In February this year, it named Shinjini Kumar, a former Reserve Bank of India executive and director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the CEO of its payments bank. The same month, it appointed Barclays executive Krishna Hegde to head the consumer investment products division of the payments bank. In December 2015, Paytm named former Amazon executive Vikas Purohit as vice president of its payments bank.

Furthermore the Noida-based company is looking to hire close to 1,500 people in its payments bank team during the next 12 months. It has already hired close to 60 people for the payments bank.

Paytm has earmarked an investment of Rs1,200 crore over a three-year period for the bank.

Besides Alibaba and Ant Financial, Paytm counts SAIF Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank as its investors. Ant Financial is a privately owned group firm controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

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