Paytm Money appoints CDSL veteran Cyrus Khambata as director

Paytm Money Limited, the wealth management arm of digital payments firm Paytm, has appointed Cyrus Khambata, the former executive director at Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL), to its board of directors, a company statement said.

Pravin Jadhav, whole-time director at Paytm Money, said that Khambata’s experience in capital markets and insights in building technology-based products in the investing domain will come in handy in the next phase of product development and investor growth at Paytm Money.

“Paytm Money is spreading the investing culture by convincing users of bank deposits, which provide lower returns, to park their hard-earned money in mutual fund schemes and other investment products, where returns can be much higher in the long run,” Khambata stated in the press note.

An accountancy graduate from the University of Mumbai, Khambata has around four decades of professional experience in banking and capital markets. In his previous stint, he served as the chief executive of CDSL Ventures Ltd, an associate of CDSL that focused on business expansion, identification and implementation of new projects. Prior to that, he was the senior vice president at CDSL.

“He (Khambata) was responsible for setting up multiple products and businesses which includes KYC registration agency (KRA), insurance repository and others. Cyrus also served as the managing director of CDSL Ventures Limited (CVL) and CDSL Insurance Repository (CIRL) and completed his tenure as group advisor to CDSL and its subsidiaries,” the company stated.

The appointment comes nine months after Alibaba-backed Paytm took on board former Servify executive Pravin Jadhav as senior vice-president to lead its new investment arm.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Paytm, Paytm Money builds investment and wealth management products for its users, all of which are delivered through a mobile application. It is One97's fourth consumer brand after Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank and digital wallet Paytm.

The company claims to have already partnered with 30 asset management companies that cover over 94% of industry assets under management. It supports investing from over 190 banks through auto-pay mandates and net banking.

Users can opt to invest as little as Rs 100 through systematic investment plans or put in higher amounts through mutual fund schemes.

Paytm Money claims to offer only direct plans of mutual funds that come with lower expense ratio due to zero distribution fees or commissions which in turn give investors a better return on investments. The investment service is completely free for users.