Paytm has appointed Ramana Kumar as the Chief Executive Officer for its Middle East operations. The company said that Kumar will be leading the development and expansion of its digital payments solutions tailored for the unique requirements of the Middle East, particularly the United Arab Emirates.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, welcomed Kumar to the company. He said that Kumar has built a formidable merchant payments business in the UAE. Sharma added that the company aims to serve the region by building and bringing strong regional leadership, backed by its proven technology.
Ramana Kumar’s UAE expertise
Ramana Kumar has 20 years of experience in the banking sector. He has extensive experience in the Middle East financial ecosystem, where he has been associated with the leading banks of the UAE for about 15 years.
Kumar worked with Ernst & Young (EY) for 3 years as a Senior Manager, before moving to Abu Dhabi in 2010, where he joined the National Bank of Abu Dhabi as Senior Manager, Strategy and Planning. At the time of departure from the National Bank of Abu Dhabi in 2017, Kumar had risen to the rank of Managing Director of Global Transaction Banking. He played a key role in the digital banking solutions transformation and product management for the bank.
In 2017, Ramana Kumar joined First Abu Dhabi Bank as Executive Vice President, where he headed the payments and digital vertices of the bank. In 2021, Kumar became the founding CEO of First Abu Dhabi Bank’s newly created subsidiary Magnati. Magnati, later on separated from FAD Bank, is a fintech company that works in payment services and merchant banking. Kumar was CEO of Magnati till March this year.
Stressing upon the opportunities for Paytm in the Middle East region, Kumar stated, “The region is rapidly adopting digital payments, and there’s a strong demand for innovative, secure, and scalable solutions. Paytm’s technology, built and refined in India, is well-suited to meet these needs. We will work closely with regulators and ecosystem partners to introduce impactful innovations and strengthen the digital payments landscape.
Kumar’s Educational Background
Ramana Kumar graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, in 1999. In 2001, he enrolled in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where he received an MBA degree.