RIL starts beta trials for Payments Bank Services

Reliance Industries (RIL) has started live beta trials for its payments bank services. It has first been testing the services among its employees.

Jio Payments Bank is a 70:30 joint venture between RIL and SBI. Jio Payments Bank will be eighth licensed entity to function as payments bank in India.

According to a news source, RIL is also moving customers of its JioMoney prepaid mobile wallet to Jio Payments Bank. Two months ago, Jio integrated SBI’s Yono omnichannel platform on to its MyJio mobile app.

Payment Banks are allowed to accept deposits up to Rs.1 lakh. They can offer remittance services, mobile payments or transfers or purchases and other banking services like ATM/debit cards, net banking and third-party fund transfers. They are not allowed to offer loans or issue credit cards.

Payment Banks were expected to kick off with basic digital transactions with payments banks and move on to more complex banking, including loans and investments, in the long run. The low penetration and lack of compliance on the part of PBs have added to the woes.

Earlier, RBI had barred Airtel, Fino and Paytm from adding consumers.

RIL plans to utilize Reliance Jio’s extensive network to facilitate services and reach out to masses. In August 2015, Jio was launched first with a beta test for one lakh employees. Within just two years after its launch, it got a huge response from masses and disrupted telecom sector. In the September quarter, Reliance Jio added 37 million customers, taking the total user base to 252.3 million.