Patna Women’s College alumnus to head Paytm

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) executive director and an alumnus of Patna Women’s College (popularly known as PWC) Shinjini Kumar is set to join Paytm’s payments bank as chief executive officer (CEO), multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter told.

Kumar, a partner and leader of the banking and capital markets practice at PwC, will take charge next month and build a 2,500-strong team. Her appointment has to be approved by the Reserve Bank of India. Sharma — whose digital payments and commerce company Paytm counts Alibaba as an investor — is one of the 11 individuals and entities approved by RBI to set up payments banks, entities which can offer remittances and deposits but not loans. The payment bank is expected to launch operations in the second half of 2016.

Paytm declined comment, but sources said “the decision was taken as Kumar has experience in the field of banking, regulatory and consultancy. Moreover, it is an added advantage of her RBI background as the appointment approval will be given by them.”

Kumar spent her childhood in Patna, where she graduated from the Patna Women’s College and later studied Studied Public Policy at The University of Texas. Going by her Facebook profile, before turning into a banker she dabbled with journalism for a while.

Photo: Patna Womens College from where Shinjini did her graduation

Team PatnaBeats congratulates Shinjini on this achievement.