Lakshmi Narayanan

About Lakshmi Narayanan

Amazon benefits from over two decades of expertise in banking operations, with a focus on payments, risk management, and change management. As Head of Operations for Amazon Pay India, the team drives seamless payment processes, enhances transaction monitoring, and ensures regulatory compliance across key functions like rewards, settlement operations, and escrow account management. Collaborative leadership fosters system and process design improvements that empower both customers and merchants. Previous roles at Citi India honed competencies in managing large-scale portfolios across cards, assets, and wealth management operations. Contributions included optimizing operations for a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, overseeing end-to-end card and payment processes, and adhering to global compliance standards. A commitment to automation and digital transformation underpins the mission to deliver innovative financial solutions at scale.

Experience

1. Head of Payment Operations

   Amazon

   Feb 2022 — Present · Bengaluru, IN

   Seasoned Payment Operations Leader with extensive experience driving large-scale financial/banking operations and digital payment ecosystems.• Led payment operations for Amazon eCommerce and Amazon Pay, managing 350+ FTEs and orchestrating 500+ performance metrics across diverse payment solutions.• Oversaw 600M+ annual transactions across 10+ payment instruments, collaborating with 15+ payment processors and 100+ banking institutions. Optimized Payment Success Rates through advanced analytics and 24/7 monitoring frameworks.• Directed enterprise-wide settlement architecture managing $50B across 1B+ transactions. Engineered innovative reconciliation frameworks integrating multi-entity financial ecosystems.• Transformed operational efficiency through strategic implementation of RPA (UiPath, Taskless) and Generative AI, achieving 87% automation in dispute resolution and reducing financial losses by 77%.• Spearheaded large-scale KYC regulatory operations, executing 4M+ Video KYC verifications for customer and merchant onboarding across Payment Bank accounts and Pay Later products.• Led comprehensive payment category operations including scan & pay, bill payments, co-branded credit cards, and Payment Aggregator services for Smart Store, Amazon Login Pay, P2M, and P2P merchants.• Established robust risk management and compliance frameworks across 300+ operational processes. Maintained strategic relationships with regulatory bodies including RBI, ED, and Cyber Police.• Managed financial controllership over enterprise-wide receivables and $300M Cost of Payments, optimizing Bill-to-Cash efficiency while maintaining strong financial controls.•Served as single-threaded leader for enterprise-wide payment escalation operations, architecting strategic interventions to optimize customer experience and regulatory compliance. Drove significant improvements across key metrics including cost-per-ticket efficiency, complaint recurrence, and automation adoption.

Education

• AVC College

  B.Com, Commerce

• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

  Chartered Accountatnt, Accounting and Finance

Skills

• Banking
• Risk Management
• Team Management
• Relationship Management
• Project Management
• Financial Risk
• Retail Banking
• Auditing
• Wealth Management
• Management
• Change Management