Airtel Payments Bank names Shashi Arora as Managing Director

NEW DELHI: Airtel Payments Bank has appointed Shashi Arora as its new chief executive officer (CEO) and Managing Director(MD), subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India.

He will replace Manish Khera, CEO, who has decided to pursue his entrepreneurial journey.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Airtel Payments Bank said, “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Shashi Arora as the CEO& MD designate of the Bank. Shashi is a seasoned professional with over 26 years of experience across sectors including FMCG, Telecom, Media and Banking. He has handled key market-facing assignments as well as business leadership roles with full P&L ownership in consumer-focused and technology-intensive sectors. I am confident that under Shashi’s leadership, our launch plans will gather further momentum, and we look forward to delivering an outstanding banking experience to millions of customers across the country.”

Shashi joined Bharti Airtel in February 2006 and was appointed as the CEO of Bharti Telemedia Limited, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel that provides DTH services in August 2011. Under his leadership, the DTH business has doubled its subscriber base as well as revenues, with over two-third of the new customers coming from rural India. Prior to this, Shashi was part of Airtel’s Mobile business, and has served as CEO of the Upper North cluster (Punjab, Haryana, HP & J&K) as well as CEO of the Delhi Circle.

Earlier Shashi was the Group Marketing Head of Kotak Mahindra Bank, and was part of the team that expanded Kotak’s banking business after they procured the banking license. He started his career with Hindustan Unilever as a Management Trainee in 1990 and, during his 12-year stint, served in various Sales & Marketing roles.

Shashi is a Gold Medalist from the Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences, Bhiwani and has done his MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Airtel Payments Bank Limited became the first entity in India to receive a payments bank license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Company plans to start rolling out its banking network in the second quarter of the current Financial Year.

Airtel Payments Bank Limited (which began operations in 2011 as Airtel M-Commerce Services Ltd.) currently provides money transfer services and semi-closed wallet services (Airtel Money). The Company has presence in 800 plus towns across India. The Company plans to leverage Bharti Airtel’s national distribution network that runs deep into rural areas and offers a robust platform to deliver banking services to the last mile. Currently, the Airtel distribution channel is spread across 1.5 Mn outlets with network presence in 5,126 census and 464,361 non-census towns and villages in India covering approximately 87% of the country’s population.