NEW DELHI: Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has resigned as independent director of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, a role he took up in May 2019, underscoring his aggressive bet to build a universal bank. In a letter to the board members, disclosed by Ujjivan SFB in the regulatory filing, Bansal said he was stepping down to prevent conflict of interest arising out of the fact that his wholly-owned firm Navi Technologies has applied for a banking license.
“Given an entity owned and controlled by me has made an application to the RBI for a universal banking license, I felt it was — in the interest of propriety and corporate governance — only appropriate that I stepped down from this role,” Bansal stated, adding that he will also cease to be a member of various board committees of the bank.
Since exiting Flipkart in May 2018, Bansal has been gaining experience to build a financial services empire and his sojourn in Ujjivan was part of the larger plan. Bansal, who racked up $1 billion from selling shares in Flipkart to Walmart, now plans to put “all eggs in one basket” by putting the all the money --- which is left after his investments in Ola and electric bike maker Ather --- in building a modern bank as he looks at repeating the success of Flipkart in banking.
“The (banking) sector needs fresh ideas to run a bank efficiently and with a lower cost. Our vision is to build a universal bank and to go beyond what hitherto has been broadly defined as financial inclusion,” the 38-year-old entrepreneur had said. Bansal wants smartphones, not branches, to be at the forefront and first on the agenda is to speed up the lending business. Through his technology firm Navi, Bansal has bought financial services assets like microfinance firm Chaitanya India Fin Credit,
DHFL General Insurance and Essel Mutual Funds. Chaitanya, which operates 40 branches in Karnataka, Bihar, Maharashtra, Raj a s t h a n a n d Jharkhand, had earlier this month said it has applied to the Reserve Bank of India for universal bank.