MAM
O&M India appoints Joono Simon as ECD for Bangalore office
MUMBAI: Joono Simon has been appointed as the executive creative director of Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore.
Simon was previously heading Leo Burnett Solutions – Colombo as chief creative officer.
Before his Colombo stint, Simon was heading the creative team in Mudra South, overseeing the Bangalore, Chennai and Kochi offices.
Prior to that, he was senior vice president and senior creative director of JWT Chennai. He has also worked across agencies such as Contract, RK Swami BBDO, SSC&B Lintas and MAA Bozell.
Ogilvy president south Prateek Srivastava said, “We are sure that under Joono‘s creative leadership, and with the guidance of our national creative directors, Ogilvy Bangalore‘s creative reputation will shine brighter than ever before. Joono comes to us with a robust and much applauded background having won at Cannes, Spikes Asia, and at Adfest.
Simon joins Ogilvy with 18 years of industry experience and has worked on multinational brands such as Jockey, Louis Philippe, Himalaya, Signature Whiskey, Peter England, Ford, and Pepsi Foods. He was recently named in the top 50 creative rankings for Asia Pacific.
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
