Mumbai: Reliance Jio, which has been making quite a stir since its launch last year, is ready to roll out ‘Jio Payments Bank,’ - a 70:30 joint venture between Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and State Bank of India (SBI), in December.
According to a report in Livemint, the payments bank which was supposed to be launched in October, got delayed as RBI wanted to make sure the launch was “glitch-free”.
The payments bank was initially planned to coincide with the delivery of the new 4g-VoLTE JioPhone that started in October. “The RBI wanted to be sure that the payments bank is fully compliant with all the regulations and is able to service its customers efficiently. The demonstrations are being made to assure the regulator that the standards of customer service will be sustainably maintained,” a Jio official said on condition of anonymity
The payments bank will act as a facilitator to SBI in expanding its network to reach customers everywhere. “For SBI, Jio Payments Bank will operate as a business correspondent. SBI will have immediate access to Jio customers in unbanked rural areas,” a person familiar with the developments told Livemint.
It looks like Mukesh Ambani is turning his promise of connecting rural and urban India through Jio with the JioPhone and the Jio Payments Bank. Reliance Jio will expanding its customer base through SBI.
Jio had received in-principle approval from RBI to launch a payments bank in August 2015.
