Payments Council of India writes to FM raising concern on Fino CEO arrest

The Payments Council of India (PCI) on Saturday wrote to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raising “institutional concerns” on the arrest of Fino Payments Bank MD and CEO Rishi Gupta.

 

The outreach comes at a time when FM Sitharaman on social media platform X took note of the issue and said she will check on it. 

 

PCI said that it was seeking to place certain broader principles pertaining to accountability attribution in a multi-layered regulated ecosystem. 

 

The industry association  representing the digital payments industry said it respected the authority of enforcement agencies and did not comment on the merits of the ongoing investigation. 

   

“While we have full faith in the enforcement process, we believe it is important for the industry to articulate concerns around proportionality and governance continuity when supervised institutions and their leadership are involved”, PCI said in its letter to FM.

 

“We have placed these considerations before the Hon. Finance Minister in a spirit of constructive engagement and remain committed to building a compliant, resilient, and inclusive financial ecosystem,” said Vishwas Patel, Chairman, PCI and MD AvenuesAI. 

 

The bank on Saturday said the alleged GST violations, in connection with which Gupta was arrested on Friday, pertain to an investigation involving certain program managers that maintain relationships with multiple banks, including Fino Payments Bank.

 

The bank clarified that neither Gupta nor the bank had any involvement in the actions of these programme managers.

 

PCI further noted that Fino’s Gupta had recently received regulatory approval for reappointment as MD and CEO. The reappointment is set to take effect in May 2026 for a three-year term.

 

In 2025, Fino Payments Bank was an granted in-principle approval by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to transition into a Small Finance Bank (SFB). 

 

This is the first payments bank to receive an SFB approval. 

 

Gupta is one of the founders of Fino PayTech Limited, the holding company of Fino Payments Bank. He joined the group in 2007 as chief operating officer and chief financial officer, later serving as managing director and chief executive officer of Fino PayTech until May 2017.