How Jio Payments Bank quadrupled its sales network in just 3 months

Payment banks conduct their business through business correspondents who work on commission, rather than through traditional bank branches. Jio Payments Bank, a unit of Jio Financial Services Ltd, almost quadrupled its sales network to nearly 200,000 business correspondents between July and September this year.

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

“The payments bank’s customer base reached nearly 3 million in FY26, almost double from 1.5 million customers in Q1FY25, and has consistently recorded growth of 14%,” Jio Financial Services Ltd MD and CEO Hitesh Sethia told analysts during the post-earnings call last month.

“This growth in customer base was supported by the rapid expansion of the payments bank’s Business Correspondent or BC network from around 2,300 in Q2 FY25 and around 50,000 to 2 lakh touchpoints in Q1 FY26,” it said.

Helps expand sales network Jio Payments Bank is expanding its customer base, accepting more deposits and also serving as a customer funnel. People who use Jio Payments Bank’s services like money transfer are more likely to purchase value-added products from the lender, helping it expand its business.

Value streams

Jio Payments Bank launched two value-added revenue streams in the July-September quarter: Savings Pro and digital toll processing. The first allows the bank to automatically invest its customers’ idle money into investment funds overnight and earn additional returns. The bank had deposits ₹421 crore as of September 30, just over double from the same period last year.

Jio Payments Bank and Airtel Payments Bank did not respond to requests for comment.

The payment bank has also partnered with Indian Highway Management Co for digital toll processing as the FASTag acquiring bank for 12 toll plazas. He signed a contract with Ltd.

“Jio Payments Bank’s entry into the charging ecosystem is a natural extension of its mission to digitize everyday payments and build smart financial infrastructure at scale,” Sethia said in the same analyst call.

Launched in 2018, Jio Payments Bank’s business correspondent network has reached nearly 2,300 by September 2024. The network surpassed 50,000 as of July 2025. It then fell below 200,000 by the end of September.

To strengthen this network, Jio poached sales and distribution employees from rivals, especially Airtel Payments Bank, to strengthen its existing channels, according to two executives who moved the companies at double their previous salaries. These sales managers in the field were given a goal of hiring up to 5,000 business reporters, they said. They added that they had already recruited correspondents for their former employers, mostly Airtel Payments Bank, so it was just a matter of convincing the correspondents to sign up for Jio Payments Bank’s network as well. This accelerated Jio’s network expansion.

working with competition

Business correspondents do not work with just any payment bank. These are often small business owners who run mobile repair shops, provide bill payment services, or make photocopiers, and they sign up for this business as an additional income stream.

“The distributor came and helped me establish my identity on Jio,” said Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh-based business journalist and YouTuber Sachin Mukesh, who signed up with Jio Payments Bank about six months ago. He has also been a correspondent for Airtel Payments Bank for nearly two years.

Another West Bengal-based BC, which had previously worked with Airtel and NSDL payments banks, has now moved exclusively to Jio Payments Bank. He said that customers demand Jio because it offers more services and offers them a better opportunity compared to other payment banks.

The people mentioned above said that Jio is still strengthening its BC network. Jio Payments Bank has a large number of job openings for sales and distribution positions in tier 3 and 4 cities across the country. ₹3.5 lakh per year. That’s twice the industry standard for the same job, the people cited above said.

A payments bank is a special banking license issued by a payments bank. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will increase financial inclusion by providing basic banking services to the unbanked and unbanked population. Unlike traditional commercial banks, payment banks cannot offer loans or credit cards. They can accept deposits up to a maximum ₹200,000 per customer and offers the ability to issue savings and current accounts as well as ATM and debit cards and facilitate digital payments and remittances.

Payment banks primarily focus on low-income households, small businesses, migrant workers, and rural customers.

There are six such banks in India: Jio and Airtel, as well as India Post Payments Bank, Fino Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Bank and NSDL Payments Bank.