India’s financial service gets ‘digitally smart’ with RIL-SBI Payments Bank

MUMBAI: In partnership with State Bank of India (SBI), Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has been granted an ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up a Payments Bank by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). RIL and SBI had applied for the Payments Bank license, with RIL as the Promoter and SBI as the joint venture partner with equity investment up to 30%.

In conjunction with the launch of RIL’s JioMoney, a prepaid payment instrument to facilitate cashless payments across multiple-use cases and build India’s largest digital merchant network, the Payments Bank formation will: deliver all digital banking products and services and co-create an ecosystem to digitize payments; and promote massive adoption of digital transactions by offering convenience, simplicity and low cost access.

Commenting on this approval, Mukesh D Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited, said, “The Payments Bank is integral to RIL’s digital initiative in a rapidly converging world of telecom, internet, commerce, media and financial services. This is one of our many initiatives to contribute meaningfully to the Government of India's ambitious Digital India program.

He further said, “Our partnership with SBI will enhance product capabilities, create the most extensive distribution network in India and drive mass scale digital payments & banking adoption, through an ‘easy to use’ experience driven by technology. The Payments Bank will leverage Reliance Jio’s pan India telecom network and Reliance Retail’s online and offline business model, to promote the digital ecosystem among all sections of the society across the country.”

In addition, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya also said, “RIL and SBI, in a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership (PPP) have joined on a mission to make India’s financial services ‘digitally smart’. SBI’s vast experience in structuring financial products for different customer segments will be combined with the digital access provided by RIL in completing the most efficient, simple and affordable delivery model with utmost focus on financial inclusion.”