There may be mass layoffs in the startups world in India, but not at Paytm. India’s largest mobile payments platform is now in full steam to build and boost the payment bank operations.
The company is planning to recruit 3000 employees across departments. Also, a hunt for a CEO to lead the payments bank arm is on.
“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 CEO 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.
About 20-25 senior and mid-management level executives have been hired to kickstart the payments bank operations. However, Paytm 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”, Sharma added.
In August last year, the RBI had granted an in-principle approval to 11 entities to open payment banks in order to widen the reach of banking services and push the government’s goal of financial inclusion. Through payment bank licences, these entities can set up banks that can accept small deposits of up to Rs 1 lakh, issue debit and ATM cards.
Paytm, Reliance Industries, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, among others were recipients of RBI’s payment bank licences.
Payments bank is a part of Paytm’s ambitious national vision of financial inclusion and a cashless economy. The rollout is expected by the mid of this year.