During an investor meeting, Hitesh Sethia, MD & CEO at Jio Financial Services announced five crucial milestones for Mukesh Ambani's company. The first significant milestone is the release of the Jio Finance App in beta on the iOS and Play Stores. This app consolidates the JFS group's offers by providing a modern, straightforward, and uniform platform for distributing financial products to consumers. This consumer app complements the merchant app, which was launched six months ago.
"With both of these apps in place, we believe we have now created a vital digital channel to reach our target customers," Sethia told the investment community, adding that half a million downloads had already occurred.
Mukesh Ambani's Jio Financial Services, called the 'fourth engine' after oil, telecom, and retail, intends to use its established consumer-facing retail and telecom sectors to create a financial services supermarket. Jio Financial Services, previously known as Reliance Strategic Investments, is positioned as a big non-banking financial organization.
It serves as a holding company for a network of consumer-focused subsidiaries and partner enterprises in lending, payment processing, insurance broking, and asset management. The Reserve Bank of India recently granted final permission for Jio Financial Services' conversion from an NBFC to a Core Investment Company.
The company is also seeking to accelerate its secured lending product. It has introduced Loans Against Mutual Funds for its customers. "We are progressing with home loans, which are currently in a sandbox and slated for consumer launch post our beta phase," he told reporters.
It has also begun an operating lease business using AirFiber devices. The company's DaaS (device as a service) strategy for consumer products (AirFiber, phone, laptop) is projected to establish a completely new industry, as huge NBFCs and banks have not done so previously.
Following a digital makeover, Jio Payments Bank has added over a million current and savings accounts (CASA). "With the revamped tech stack, the Jio Payments Bank can now open a digital savings account for its customers online in only a few minutes," Sethia told a news conference. The bank also provides a virtual Rupay Platinum debit card. Despite being in its early stages, this digital savings account has already attracted over a million active members.
Last year, JFS signed a 50:50 joint venture agreement with BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company. BlackRock is a significant participant in passive investment, with its exchange-traded funds (ETFs) being extremely popular worldwide.
"We have identified top talent and are focused on integrating advanced technology platform solutions to deliver superior asset management services. Our process with the regulator for the necessary approvals is well underway," said Sethia.
Jio Financial Services, as a publicly traded firm, has worked on a variety of fronts during the previous three quarters. The important pillars are: developing a strong governance and policy framework, attracting and integrating top personnel at all operational levels, and implementing a modern, cost-effective technology and data architecture. These initiatives aim to facilitate speedy product releases and scalable distribution.
With over two decades of experience, Sethia was instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank's global presence, having founded the bank's Canadian and German divisions. He was also allocated to prominent positions at the private bank's UK and Hong Kong branches. Sethia previously oversaw the transaction banking division at the bank headquartered in Mumbai.
