PhonePe Expands Board with Former Bureaucrat and Walmart Executives Amid Regulatory Scrutiny on Rival Paytm

• ByStartupStory     |    February 6, 2024

Fintech firm PhonePe has bolstered its board with the addition of a former bureaucrat and executives from Walmart. This move comes amid regulatory crackdowns on its rival Paytm. PhonePe, owned by Walmart, has appointed former revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj, Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer John D Rainey, and Chief People Officer Donna Morris to its board, as reported by MoneyControl.

These appointments coincide with scrutiny faced by Paytm, a prominent digital wallet service, for concerns related to money laundering and questionable transactions involving significant sums of money between the firm and its less prominent banking arm. These issues have led the Reserve Bank of India to impose restrictions on entities led by tech entrepreneur Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Tarun Bajaj, a member of the 1988 IAS batch, served as the revenue secretary until November 2022. He will join PhonePe’s board as an independent director and will chair the risk committee. John D Rainey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Walmart Inc, and Donna Morris, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of Walmart Inc, have joined PhonePe’s board as non-executive directors.

Following its separation from Flipkart and relocation of its headquarters from Singapore to India in preparation for an IPO (initial public offering), PhonePe has been diversifying its business into areas such as stock broking, lending, wealth management, and e-commerce.

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