Reliance Jio to start payments bank after RBI’s approval

Jio Payments Bank, a joint venture between Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and State Bank of India (SBI), is expected to start operations now after getting the approval from Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The company is expected to start the operations by start of April, and could offer banking services to its existing and new customers by leveraging on its retail network, merchant tie-ups, neighborhood Jio retailers and e-tailers. With Reliance Jio customers crossing the 100 million mark, the company is expected to leverage the telecom customers for expansion. The company may bundle its Jio plans with transaction offers on the payments bank platform, and could also sell various financial and insurance products to boost revenue for the initiative.

With the Government of India’s push for digital economy, RBI has also given payments banks approval to Airtel, PayTM and India Post. Airtel and PayTM have already launched pilot services of the bank. With all the firms having significant customer base, they will be looking to first explore all of their existing customers to power initial growth. Interestingly all three providers, Jio, Airtel and PayTM, have a digital wallet of their own, and have been providing transaction services to its customers.