Paytm appoints Pallavi Shroff as board member to drive financial business

Digital payment major Paytm has appointed Pallavi Shroff, managing partner of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas law firm to its board of directors. Her appointment will drive the growth of financial services business such as lending, insurance and wealth management.

The appointment comes on the heels of Neeraj Arora resignation from the board of the Noida-based company. Arora, Vice President at WhatsApp stepped down as director from Paytm following the tirade from the company's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma over WhatsApp UPI alleged circumvention of regulations.

Currently, the company has a board comprising directors Kabir Misra (managing partner, SoftBank Capital), Joe Tsai (Alibaba Group), Amit Singhal (former Google and Uber senior executive), Mark Schwartz (Goldman Sachs), Eric Jing, (CEO at Ant Financial) and Ravi Adusumalli (SAIF Partners).

Shroff has over 36 years of extensive experience in litigation, arbitration, and competition law.

To sell the investment, insurance and wealth management products such as mutual funds, the company is launching its fourth independent entity Paytm Money soon. Currently, it’s in the process to get the regulatory nod from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to act as an investment advisor for users buying financial services.

Also Read: After Myntra, Paytm Mall plans offline stores in Delhi

Paytm Money is in discussions with leading asset management companies such as HDFC, ICICI, and SBI among others to offer financial products including mutual funds.

Meanwhile, Flipkart is reportedly planning to sell financial services, insurance, and mutual funds via its affiliate PhonePe.

In November last year, Paytm Payments Bank had appointed Sudhanshu Jain as the new CFO to look after its finance and strategy. Formerly, Jain was the deputy manager at private sector ICICI Bank.

Earlier in January this year, Dushyant Saraswat who headed the gaming division had resigned from the company while its senior vice president and Paytm Gold head Krishna Hegde also quit the Alibaba-backed payment major.