What went into quadrupling Jio Payments Bank's footprint

Jio Payments Bank Ltd is aggressively expanding its sales network to catch up with market leader Airtel Payments Bank, with the aim of using this wider reach to acquire customers for its more profitable financial products.

- Dipali Banka & Nehal Chaliawala

Instead of having traditional bank branches, a payments bank conducts business through business correspondents who work on a commission. Jio Payments Bank, a unit of Jio Financial Services Ltd, nearly quadrupled its sales network between July and September to nearly 200,000 business correspondents.

Market leader Airtel Payments Bank has a network of 500,000 business correspondents, which it gradually built over a five-year period between 2017 and 2021. The network has stayed at that level since.

“The payment bank’s customer base grew to about 3 million in Q2 FY26, nearly double the 1.5 million customers in Q2 FY25, and a consistent 14% growth sequentially,” Hitesh Sethia, MD & CEO-Jio Financial Services Ltd, told analysts during a post-earnings call last month.

To ramp up this network, Jio poached sales and distribution staff from rivals, especially Airtel Payments Bank