Jio Payments Bank's Aggressive Expansion Strategy
Jio Payments Bank Ltd has executed one of the most remarkable expansion drives in India's banking sector, quadrupling its business correspondent network to nearly 200,000 in just three months. This explosive growth between July and September 2025 represents a strategic move to challenge market leader Airtel Payments Bank and establish dominance in the payments banking space.
Network Growth: From 2,300 to 200,000
The numbers tell a compelling story of rapid scaling. Jio Payments Bank had only 2,300 business correspondents in September 2024, which grew to over 50,000 by July 2025 before skyrocketing to nearly 200,000 by September 2025. This represents approximately a 8,600% growth year-over-year.
In comparison, Airtel Payments Bank built its network of 500,000 business correspondents gradually over five years between 2017 and 2021, and has maintained that level since. Jio's aggressive approach has significantly narrowed the gap between the two telecom-led payment banks.
Customer Base and Deposit Growth
The network expansion has directly translated into customer acquisition and deposit growth. According to Hitesh Sethia, MD & CEO of Jio Financial Services Ltd, the payment bank's customer base reached 3 million in Q2 FY26, doubling from 1.5 million customers in Q2 FY25 and showing consistent 14% sequential growth.
Deposits have shown equally impressive growth, with ₹421 crore in deposits as of September 30, 2025, more than double the amount from the same period last year.
Aggressive Recruitment Strategy
Jio's rapid expansion was fueled by an aggressive recruitment strategy that included poaching sales and distribution employees from competitors, particularly Airtel Payments Bank. According to industry sources, Jio offered salaries of ₹3.5 lakh per year - twice the industry standard for similar roles.
These sales executives were given ambitious targets of recruiting up to 5,000 business correspondents each. Since many of these correspondents were already working with competitors, the recruitment process involved convincing them to add Jio Payments Bank to their portfolio rather than starting from scratch.
New Revenue Streams and Services
Jio Payments Bank launched two significant value-added services during the July-September quarter: Savings Pro and digital toll processing. The Savings Pro feature allows customers to automatically invest idle money in overnight mutual funds, generating additional returns.
The bank also signed a contract with Indian Highway Management Co. Ltd for digital toll processing as a FASTag acquirer bank for 12 toll plazas. According to Sethia, this move represents "a natural extension of its mission to digitise everyday payments and build smart financial infrastructure at scale."
Business Correspondent Ecosystem
Business correspondents typically operate as small business owners running mobile repair shops, bill payment services, or photocopy centers, adding payment bank services as an additional revenue stream. Importantly, business correspondents don't work exclusively with any single payment bank, allowing them to serve multiple providers simultaneously.
Sachin Mukesh, a business correspondent and YouTuber from Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, exemplifies this model. He signed up with Jio Payments Bank about six months ago while maintaining his approximately two-year relationship with Airtel Payments Bank.
Market Position and Future Outlook
Despite the dramatic growth, Jio Payments Bank still trails Airtel Payments Bank's established network of 500,000 business correspondents. However, the rapid expansion demonstrates Jio's commitment to leveraging its extensive telecom infrastructure and brand recognition to capture market share in the financial services sector.
The payments bank model, created by the Reserve Bank of India to boost financial inclusion, focuses on providing basic banking services to unbanked and underbanked populations. Unlike traditional banks, payments banks cannot offer loans or credit cards but can accept deposits up to ₹200,000 per customer while offering savings accounts, current accounts, and digital payment services.
With six payments banks operating in India - India Post Payments Bank, Fino Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Bank, NSDL Payments Bank, Jio and Airtel - the competition is intensifying as players seek to serve low-income households, small businesses, migrant workers, and rural customers.
