NPCI appoints Ajay Kumar Choudhary as non-executive chairman of board

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Thursday said it has appointed Ajay Kumar Choudhary as an independent director and non-executive chairman of its board for three years.

Choudhary, who is a central banker, has a career spanning over three decades at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He concluded his service as RBI's executive director in October 2023.

“Choudhary has a proven track record and accomplishments in the domain of banking regulation, supervision and fintech areas in various capacities,” NPCI said in a statement.


He succeeds Biswamohan Mahapatra, who previously served as the non-executive chairman of NPCI.

Incorporated in 2008, NPCI operates retail payments and settlements systems in the country, including RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System (AePS), and Bharat BillPay, among other facilities.

It has been credited for making payment systems such as UPI mainstream and scaling it to over 12 billion in January 2024.