Shabnam Sinha, with over 30 years of experience, is appointed chairperson of Airtel Payments Bank for a three-year term, marking a significant leadership change amid ongoing group succession plans and growth in rural financial services.
Airtel Payments Bank has named Shabnam Sinha as chairperson for a three-year term starting on 1 October 2026, replacing Sunil Bharti Mittal, who will leave the board at the end of September after nearly a decade at the helm. According to Bharti Airtel’s exchange filing, the move has been cleared by the Reserve Bank of India and the bank’s board.
The transition comes as Mittal’s wider leadership role across the Bharti group is also being reshaped. Bharti Airtel’s board has already approved his reappointment as chairman of the telecom company for another five years from 1 October 2026, while Airtel Africa has said he will step down as its chair in July 2026 and be succeeded by Gopal Vittal. Taken together, the changes point to a managed succession process across the group’s listed businesses.
During Mittal’s tenure at Airtel Payments Bank, the lender expanded from a payments platform into a sizeable retail and business banking operation. The filing said it now has more than 121 million monthly active users and nearly 30 million bank account customers, with services delivered through the Airtel Thanks app and more than 500,000 banking points across India. It also said the network reaches three out of every four villages and that one in five rural banking points is run by women banking correspondents.
Sinha is already familiar with the institution, serving as an independent director and chairing its special committee that monitors fraud. She also sits on the risk management and information technology committees. A former World Bank professional with more than 30 years’ experience in development finance, financial services, public policy and institutional reform, she said her priorities would be to sustain growth, expand reach and deepen financial inclusion through technology-led services.
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