Shabnam Sinha has been appointed as chairperson of Airtel Payments Bank, succeeding Sunil Bharti Mittal who steps down after ten years, marking a significant leadership transition in India’s largest mobile banking network.
Airtel Payments Bank is preparing for a change at the top of its board as Sunil Bharti Mittal steps down as non-executive chairman and leaves the board on September 30, 2026, ending a decade in the role. The bank has named Shabnam Sinha as chairperson for a three-year term from October 1, 2026, with the appointment cleared by the board and the Reserve Bank of India, according to the company.
Sinha is already an independent director at Airtel Payments Bank and leads its special committee monitoring fraud. She also sits on the risk management and IT committees. The bank says she brings more than 30 years of experience in financial services, development finance, public policy and institutional change, including senior work with the World Bank advising governments and organisations across Asia, Africa and Europe on governance, risk and operational efficiency.
Mittal joined the payments bank as non-executive chairman in April 2016, when the business was still being built, and the company credits him with helping guide its expansion into India’s largest payments bank by revenue. His departure also comes against a broader backdrop of leadership continuity across the wider Bharti group: Bharti Enterprises still lists him as founder and chairman, while Bharti Airtel has recently moved to refresh senior leadership in other parts of the group, including its India business.
Airtel Payments Bank says it now serves more than 121 million monthly active users and has nearly 30 million bank account customers, with services offered through the Airtel Thanks app and a network of more than 500,000 banking points. The bank says its physical reach extends to three out of four villages in India, and it describes itself as the country’s second-largest mobile banking and UPI AutoPay player.
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