Jio Financial Services Limited (JIOFIN.NS) Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone. It gives me immense pleasure to welcome all of you to the Q3 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call of Jio Financial Services Limited. Wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous New Year. My name is Dipak Daga, and I head Strategy and Investor Relations for Jio Financial Services. On the call with us today, we have Mr. Hitesh Sethia, MD and CEO of Jio Financial Services Limited; Mr. Vinod Easwaran, MD and CEO of Jio Payments Bank Limited; and Mr. Venkata Peri, our Group Chief Operating Officer. The earnings presentation is uploaded on our website, www.jfs.in and on the stock exchanges. [Operator Instructions]. Before I hand over the call, I would like to read out the safe harbor statement. This presentation contains forward-looking statements, which may be identified by the use of words like plans, expects, estimates or other words of similar meaning. All statements that address expectations or predictions about the future, including, but not limited to statements about strategy for growth, product development, market positions are forward statements based on rationale and data. Actual results may vary materially given the market circumstances. I will now hand over the call to Hitesh to discuss the business in detail.

Thank you, Dipak. Good evening, everyone. Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year, and I extend a warm welcome to all those joining today's earnings call. The third quarter of fiscal 2026 was defined by accelerated momentum across our entire portfolio of businesses. Each of our operating verticals gained further scale, demonstrating our inherent strength derived from the foundation for sustainable growth, which we have assiduously laid down over the last 2 years. Our lending business, Jio Credit, has achieved significant scale with the assets under management reaching over INR 19,000 crores, a 4.5x year-on-year growth in the assets. This growth was backed by strong execution with gross disbursements for the quarter standing at over INR 8,600 crores, double of the gross disbursements in Q3 FY '25 and a 30% higher sequentially. Jio BlackRock Asset Management, our joint venture with BlackRock, has demonstrated remarkable agility in bringing well-constructed mutual funds to the market, which have found favor with both institutional and retail investors alike. Within just 6 months of the launch, we have brought 10 funds to the market across cash, debt and equity categories. Assets under management in this business stood at around INR 15,000 crores. Furthermore, we have introduced curated model portfolios comprising Jio BlackRock Mutual Funds designed to help our customers achieve diverse financial goals with greater precision. Our payment businesses continue to drive high-frequency engagement with customers. Jio Payment Solutions recorded a transaction processing volume of over INR 16,300 crores, a 156% increase; year-on-year with net processing margin expanding to 10 basis points from 9 basis points in Q3 FY '25 and Q2 FY '26. Jio Payment Bank saw its deposit base cross INR 500 crores, a 94% year-on-year growth. This growth was driven by a robust increase in our CASA customer base, supported by a steady expansion of our business correspondent network, which now reaches approximately 287,000 touch points. As highlighted in our previous calls, an important metric we closely monitor is the ratio of net income from business operations to our consolidated net total income. For this quarter, our net income from business operations stood at INR 386 crores, up 320% year-on-year and 22% sequentially. Net income from business operations as a percentage of consolidated total net income stood at 55% for the quarter. The progressively rising share of net income from business operations, which stood only at 20% in Q3 FY '25 indicates that we have reached an inflection point where our core operations have become the primary driver of our financial performance even as we continue to use our treasury income to invest for growth. Our consolidated total income for the quarter doubled year-on-year to around INR 900 crores and our pre-provisioning operating profit, excluding dividend income, stood at INR 354 crores. Venkata Peri, our Group Chief Operating Officer, will take you through the detailed financial performance for the quarter later during the presentation. We remain well capitalized with a total consolidated shareholders' equity base of nearly INR 1.5 lakh crores, providing us the necessary firepower to continue investing in our high-growth businesses while simultaneously nurturing and incubating those entities that are currently at a nascent stage. The growth momentum we spoke of in the previous slide is underpinned by our well-diversified presence with tailored products and services catering to the 4 core financial needs of an individual, the need to borrow, invest, protect and transact. This ecosystem approach ensures that we can go beyond the immediate financial requirements for which a customer first enters an ecosystem and cater to their entire financial life cycle. As we continue to scale, this creates a virtuous flywheel effect with deeper engagement, leading to more bespoke offerings per customer. Our digital-first strategy is yielding significant results in terms of customer acquisition and engagement. I'm very pleased to report that we now have a unique user base of over 20 million users across all our digital properties. This provides us with a wide top of the funnel base for cross-selling our diverse range of financial solutions. Furthermore, our average monthly active users for this quarter has seen a consistent growth, reaching over 9.2 million users this quarter, reflecting the high stickiness and relevance of our platforms in the daily lives of our customers. At Jio Financial Services, we are building for the long term. While our businesses such as lending and payments are in sustainable growth phase with significant growth in key business metrics, newer ventures such as our wealth management entities and insurance joint ventures are being carefully nurtured at the incubation stage to ensure that they are positioned for long-term success. Our strategic presence across the entire financial life cycle of a customer manifests in a strong and diversified suite of products. These are available to customers through our unified digital storefront, the JioFinance app as well as MyJio. Our focus remains on delivering smart, secure and seamless solutions that cater to the evolving needs of every generation of Indian. Our hybrid approach, which effectively integrates our in-house products with a curated suite of offerings from trusted external partners empower us to deliver unparalleled value by bringing a comprehensive range of financial solutions onto a single trusted and intuitive digital platform. Over the next few quarters, we will continue to expand this repository by integrating more digital-first third-party products. This steady evolution ensures our platform remains a comprehensive destination that anticipates and meets the evolving needs of our customers. Our distribution strategy is centered on achieving true democratization of financial services by ensuring we are present wherever our customers are, covering the length and breadth of the country. We continue to scale our omnichannel footprint, leveraging our digital native core while augmenting it with strategic physical touch points for last-mile fulfillment. In terms of digital distribution, JioFinance and MyJio remain our primary engine for customer acquisition and our digital platform is witnessing encouraging growth in user base and engagement, reflecting the strong resonance of our integrated financial ecosystem with our customers. Jio Payment Solutions launched a dedicated transactional website and the BizApp on iOS, providing merchants with digital tools to manage their businesses effectively. To further expand customer acquisition channels, Jio Payment Bank has launched a new web portal with a streamlined, secure and intuitive account opening experience. Jio BlackRock AMC has broadened its reach by expanding partnerships with 84 digital fintech platforms and registered investment advisers, up from 71 such entities in the preceding quarter. Jio Insurance Broking continued to focus on driving organic search traffic and facilitating institutional sales through a dedicated digital funnel on our website, jioinsure.in. Simultaneously, we continue to scale our physical distribution network with Jio Payment Bank expanding its Business Correspondent or BC network to approximately 287,000 touchpoints this quarter, representing a 44% growth over the previous quarter. Jio Credit Limited extended its on-ground presence by expanding to 16 cities with 18 offices from 8 cities and 8 offices a year ago. This strategically planned build-out serves as a key enabler for the last mile fulfillment and accurate credit assessment. Jio Insurance Broking's digital point of salesperson or PoSP channel is now present across 10 states, enabling personalized advisory and service, while Jio Payment Solutions further strengthened its offline merchant network across 7 states. Being a digital native organization, Jio Financial Services is free from any technology debt and is able to leverage best-in-class technology, including cutting-edge AI and data analytics to empower our customers and communities with fit-for-purpose financial solutions. We are institutionalizing AI to solve real-world problems and deliver a superior experience to customers. Our goal is to move towards a very lean operations environment with AI-driven intelligence powering every interaction and decision to improve efficiency and maximize returns. In line with this goal, we have successfully implemented several AI-led initiatives across our business verticals to boost revenue and ensure operational excellence. While we are firmly digital first, the North Star for us will be for our platform to become intelligent always. A robust data and intelligence layer offering a 360-degree view of the customer forms the core of our ongoing initiatives around agentic and neural intelligence, which will empower us to become an intelligent financial adviser for our users, offering the right product to the right customer at the right time and through the right channel. Our human capital remains the cornerstone of our long-term success. We have meticulously built a young, dynamic and diverse team of over 1,900 professionals with diverse and niche skills, including UI/UX product development, data science and risk management. To remain agile and deliver customer-centric innovation at scale, we have institutionalized a structure of AI-driven cross-functional teams. These hierarchy agnostic cohorts bring together multifaceted talent for optimum man-machine collaboration to deliver cutting-edge solutions focused on targeted customer outcome. A culture of innovation is deeply ingrained in our DNA, and this manifests through Jio FinX, our annual in-house innovation expo. Now in its second year, Jio FinX saw our teams across business and functions come together to demonstrate implemented use cases of AI and automation, which are aimed at delivering operational and customer service excellence. Moving on to individual businesses, starting with Jio Credit, our lending subsidiary. The growth in NBFC's assets under management reached INR 19,049 crores, representing a robust quarter-on-quarter growth of 29%. This expansion was supported by strong operational execution with gross disbursements for the quarter reaching INR 8,615 crores, a 30% increase compared to the previous quarter. The primary driver of AUM growth is through fresh organic disbursements with new direct assignments only intended to replenish the existing inorganic book as and when attractively priced portfolios become available in the market. As our organic lending portfolio continues to scale, the share of direct assignment as a percentage of our total book -- loan book will decline going forward. On the liability side, we have a resilient and diversified borrowing mix, including commercial papers, nonconvertible debentures, bank loans as well as intercorporate deposits and business tri-party repo arrangements. Overall, our borrowings have grown by around 35% sequentially, commensurate with the growing scale of our lending business. We maintained a competitive average cost of borrowing of funds at 6.99% during the quarter versus 7.06% in the preceding quarter. Moving on to the financial performance of Jio Credit Limited. Net interest income for the quarter stood at INR 165 crores, up 166% year-on-year and 18% quarter-on-quarter, reflecting the healthy growth in our interest-earning assets and the benefit of our declining cost of funds. Pre-provision operating profit increased to INR 99 crores, up 130% year-on-year and 24% sequentially. Total shareholders' equity stood at INR 5,093 crores with a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.2x. Capital adequacy ratio remains robust at 24.9%. To talk about our Payment Bank business, we have with us today Mr. Vinod Easwaran, MD and CEO of Jio Payments Bank. Over to you, Vinod.

Thank you, Hitesh. Good evening, everyone. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year. Jio Payments Bank was originally established as a 50-50 joint venture with the State Bank of India. Jio Financial Services, the parent entity, increased its stake over the last couple of years. And in June 2025, Jio Payments Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio Financial Services. The Payments Bank is a vital engagement layer for the Jio Financial Services group with high customer stickiness and retention given the relatively higher frequency of transactions. Our value proposition is precisely tailored for 2 distinct customer segments. For the urban customers, this serves as a safe secondary account through which they can manage routine expenses and declutter the primary bank account while also providing access to broader financial services. For rural customers, we serve as a primary bank account fulfilling their core banking requirements through an assisted digital channel via our network of Business Correspondents or BCs. Our product suite comprises CASA variants and wallets and virtual and physical debit cards. We have recently launched a new savings bank account variant called Savings Pro, a truly innovative account that auto invests idle money into overnight mutual funds. This feature helps customers generate higher returns on their surplus liquidity while keeping it instantly available for payments. The introduction of this account variant has been instrumental in driving higher average deposits for the bank. During this quarter, we have further expanded our offerings with the launch of cash management services and direct benefit transfer. These products allow us to serve a broader range of customer needs and deepen our integration into the financial lives of our users. In addition to the core banking, we are also growing our infrastructure-linked digital financial services. Earlier this fiscal, Jio Payment Bank was empaneled by the National Highways Authority of India and Indian Highway Management Company Limited as an acquirer bank for toll processing, and we are currently managing 11 toll plazas across the country. In Q2 FY '26, we had received mandates for processing toll at barrier-less toll plazas using Multi-Lane Free Flow or MLFF technology, which deducts toll without requiring vehicles to stop. In Q3 FY '26, the bank secured 2 additional MLFF mandates. Notably, we have secured 4 out of the 8 MLFF mandates that have been awarded thus far, positioning us at the forefront of this emerging digital infrastructure. Our customer acquisition and distribution strategy is predicated on our digital and physical reach. Our digital channels include the JioFinance app, the MyJio app and our own website. Our primary physical channel is our BC network comprising our own BC network partners and corporate BCs. This network allows us to establish touch points in underpenetrated regions to offer assisted banking services. During Q3 FY '26, we also received an in-principle approval from RBI to set up 75,381 new business correspondents, our own network. We also leverage the distribution network of our group ecosystem for a wider customer reach. Against this backdrop, I am pleased to share the key performance highlights of the Payments Bank for the third quarter. Our business momentum is clearly reflected in our financial and operational metrics as we continue to scale our presence. Total income comprising net interest income and gross fees and commission income reached INR 61 crores during the quarter. I would like to highlight that this represents a significant 10x growth on a year-on-year basis. On a sequential basis, total income doubled driven by a higher transaction throughput of 3x quarter-on-quarter and expanded service offerings. Our customer base grew 69% year-on-year and around 9% quarter-on-quarter to 3.2 million during the quarter. Total deposits, including current accounts, savings accounts and wallets stood at INR 507 crores as of December 31, 2025, up 94% year-on-year and 20% over the preceding quarter. Our BC network of approximately 287,000 touchpoints, including owned and corporate BC outlets grew 44% sequentially and witnessed a massive leap from just over 7,200 touch points a year ago. To conclude, Jio Payments Bank is now clearly in a sustained growth phase and pursuing an accelerated path to profitability. With that, I would like to hand it back to Hitesh.

Thank you, Vinod. Moving to our second vertical in the payment space. Jio Payment Solutions continues to deliver a comprehensive omnichannel payment solution for merchants. Even as we grow processing volumes in this business, our focus remains on maintaining healthy unit level profitability. During the quarter, our transaction processing volume reached INR 16,315 crores, a robust 20% sequential increase. Corresponding to this, our gross fees and commission income rose to INR 96 crores, an increase of 26% from the preceding quarter as we remain firmly focused on profitability with net processing margin increasing to 10 basis points during the quarter. We continue to expand our client base and have successfully onboarded new clients across several high-growth sectors, including e-commerce, quick commerce, travel, utilities, BFSI and the government sector. To further empower our merchants, we have introduced several technology-first solutions this quarter, including instant settlements in under 10 minutes and enterprise dashboard for merchants to enable payouts across multiple bank accounts efficiently. Other new features and services launched during the quarter include POS terminals for in-store card and UPI payments, real-time bank account verification to streamline and improve the merchant onboarding experience, dynamic currency conversion for collection of international card payments in local currency. These strategic initiatives, backed by our state-of-the-art SaaS-based platform ensure that we provide best-in-class, secure and scalable solutions that drive merchant loyalty and sustainable growth. Turning now to our Invest vertical. Our joint venture with BlackRock for Asset Management continues to deliver accessible and bespoke investment solutions for retail and institutional investors alike. Jio BlackRock Asset Management has an AUM, assets under management, of close to INR 15,000 crores as on 31st December 2025, across a diverse suite of 10 funds across cash, debt and equity funds. The active equity Flexi Cap fund continues to witness strong retail engagement with AUM up 70% since the NFO. The asset management company reached an important milestone during the quarter with over 1 million retail customers reposing their faith in the AMC. This was accompanied by healthy institutional investor base of over 400 entities. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the investors who chose Jio BlackRock Asset Management for their investment needs. Our mission to democratize new age investment solutions for the people of India gained further momentum with the ratio of first-time mutual fund investors increasing to 18% of our total base in Q3 FY '26, up from 10% a quarter back. Moreover, over 40% of our retail AUM comes from beyond the top 30 cities in India, reflecting broad-based investor trust and the efficacy of our digital-first approach. During the quarter, we secured regulatory approval to introduce our 4 new funds, arbitrage, short duration, low duration and sector rotation. In terms of the pipeline of new products, we will be launching the Sector Rotation Fund shortly, and we have filed an application with SEBI for a specialized investment fund. For Jio BlackRock's Wealth Management and Securities broking business, we have appointed the leadership and senior management teams. In preparation for the launch of its operations, our wealth management company, Jio BlackRock Investment Advisors launched an early access campaign and website earlier this month. Moving to our insurance business. We continue to make considerable progress towards bringing convenient, affordable and accessible insurance solutions to the Indian market. Our insurance broking entity, Jio Insurance, Broking showed strong operational traction during the quarter. We have scaled our direct-to-customer offering across motor, health and life insurance now featuring 73 plans. Our digital PoSP channel has seen an impressive growth with premium collection increasing significantly on a quarter-on-quarter basis. This channel now provides personalized advisory and service to customers across 21 states. We continue to strengthen our institutional client base, leveraging our internal group ecosystem as well as external corporate partnerships. As a result, the premium facilitated during Q3 FY '26 grew 22.5% year-on-year to INR 212 crores. The sequential decline in premium facilitated was mainly due to high base effect in Q2 FY '26 on account of timing of renewal of certain high-value corporate policies. As we reflect on our journey so far, it is clear that we have reached a pivotal inflection point where our core operations are now the primary engine of our financial performance. With a solid foundation firmly in place, we are now poised to leverage our scale to bring to market trusted and intelligent financial services that are tailored to the unique individual context of every customer we serve. Our vision for the future is ambitious, yet it remains anchored in robust risk and regulatory guardrails. As we continue to scale and innovate, we do so with an unwavering commitment to keep the customer at the center of everything we do, ensuring that our growth is both responsible and inclusive. Thank you for your continued support and for being a part of our mission to democratize financial services for all Indians. With this, I would now like to hand over to Mr. Venkata Peri, our Group Chief Operating Officer, to walk you through the detailed financial performance for the quarter under review.

Thank you, Hitesh, and good evening, everyone. Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year. Jio Financial Services is truly at an inflection point where our diverse businesses are scaling up significantly and sustainably even as we continue to invest for growth in some of our new ventures, which are in an incubation phase. Our financial performance for Q3 FY '26 reflects this growing scale, which also reaffirms that our new age and globally best-in-class financial products and services are resonating well with our customers. With a well-capitalized balance sheet, we are investing for growth across our diverse businesses, which are in different stages of evolution. And even as we do so, we maintain an unwavering commitment to prudent capital allocation and value creation for all stakeholders, including customers and shareholders. I am pleased to present the financial highlights for the third quarter ended December 31, 2025. Our financial results for this period are prepared in compliance with Indian accounting standards as prescribed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. As you can see from this slide, our group structure comprises wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates. Our diverse businesses across the 4 verticals of lending and leasing, payments, investments and protection are housed under separate entities, each with its own independent Board and governance framework. Jio Financial Services as a parent holding entity is a core investment company, which supports the scale-up of these entities, which are in different stages of their growth journey with some being in the incubation stage and others scaling up quickly. This includes investments in building world-class tech, data and AI capabilities that give us a distinctive edge in the marketplace. At the outset, I'd like to highlight the key accounting change at the consolidated level for us beginning Q2 FY '26. Following the acquisition of SBI's remaining stake in Jio Payments Bank Limited in June of 2025, its financials are now fully consolidated with Jio Financial Services on a line-by-line basis. In previous quarters, JPBL was accounted for as a joint venture and its bottom line formed a part of the share of associates and JVs in JFSL's consolidated P&L. For Q3 FY '26, our consolidated total income stood at INR 901 crores, doubling over the year ago period and a robust 23% sequential increase. Let me walk you through the key components of the top line. Interest income stood at INR 504 crores in Q3 FY '26 versus INR 210 crores in Q3 FY '25, reflecting the strong growth in our NBFC's loan book, complemented by interest earned from our treasury operations. This segment also includes interest income earned by the Payments Bank. Fees and commission income grew fivefold year-on-year and 30% sequentially to INR 182 crores, driven by higher transaction processing volume in the Payment Solutions business and higher transaction throughput in the Payments Bank. This was further supported by year-on-year growth in fee income earned by Jio Insurance Broking and Jio Credit. And finally, net gain on fair value changes on our market investments to the tune of INR 215 crores in Q3 FY '26 compared to INR 191 crores in Q3 FY '25. Total expenses for Q3 FY '26 stood at INR 547 crores. This compares to INR 119 crores in Q3 FY '25 and INR 423 crores in Q2 FY '26. The year-on-year increase in expenses is largely on account of growth in business volume, including finance costs at the NBFC, which transitioned towards using a higher share of market borrowings for its lending operations vis-a-vis equity funding. Payment processing charges incurred on account of higher transaction processing volume in the Payment Solutions business and business development expenses at the Payments Bank. It is to be noted that as explained earlier, the expenses attributable to the Payments Bank were not a part of the consolidated profit and loss statement in Q2 FY '25 when Jio Payments Bank was still being accounted for as a joint venture. Even as we make strategic investments for sustainable and responsible growth, we remain committed to fiscal prudence. As a result, our pre-provisioning operating profit, PPOP, stood at INR 354 crores during the quarter versus INR 330 crores in Q3 FY '25 and INR 309 crores in Q2 FY '26. Provisions on account of expected credit loss stood at INR 19 crores and is in line with the growth of our lending book and as per the prudent provisioning norms we adhere to at the NBFC. Our share of associates and joint ventures stood at INR 36 crores versus INR 59 crores in Q3 FY '25 and INR 217 crores in Q2 FY '26. The year-on-year change in share of associates and joint ventures factors in the financial performance of our joint ventures with BlackRock, where certain expenses are required to be incurred for scaling up the AMC further and operationalizing the wealth management company. In the sequentially preceding quarter, share of associates and JVs also comprises dividend received by Reliance Services and Holdings Limited, which is accounted for as an associate of Jio Financial Services on its investment in Reliance Industries Limited shares. Consequently, the consolidated profit after tax for Q3 FY '26 stood at INR 269 crores versus INR 295 crores in Q3 FY '25 and INR 695 crores in Q2 FY '26. We remain well capitalized with a total shareholders' equity of INR 1.5 lakh crores at a consolidated level, providing a solid foundation to fuel our ambitious growth aspirations. Now moving on to the stand-alone financial performance. Stand-alone total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, was INR 159 crores compared to INR 148 crores in the same period last year and INR 135 crores in the preceding quarter. As indicated earlier, the total income is represented by interest income on interest-bearing investments, net gain on fair value changes on money market and liquid mutual fund investments and fee and commission income. Total expenses, including provision for the quarter on a stand-alone basis was INR 47 crores compared to INR 48 crores (sic) [ INR 42 crores ] in Q3 FY '25 and versus INR 65 crores (sic) [ INR 60 crores ] in Q2 FY '26. In the preceding quarter, certain expenses were incurred by Jio Financial Services to incubate new businesses. On a stand-alone basis, the profit after tax of the company during the quarter was INR 73 crores as compared to INR 75 crores in the corresponding quarter last year. Even as we pursue growth, we remain guided by our foundational principles of the 4 Rs: reputation above all, regulatory adherence, return on capital and return of capital. These principles form the bedrock of a sustainable risk calibrated growth.

Thank you, Hitesh, Vinod and Venkata. To summarize, we have reached a pivotal moment in our journey where a consistent rhythm of growth momentum is evident across our businesses. We are making significant progress towards our stated objective of democratizing financial services in India by leveraging AI and data analytics to deliver simple, secure and contextual financial services as highlighted by earlier speakers. By maintaining a disciplined problem first approach to technology, we ensure our AI implementations are precisely targeted to drive sharper outcomes in both operational and customer service excellence. We remain committed to delivering long-term stakeholder value. Thank you for your continued confidence in our journey and joining this call. As we conclude our earnings call, we invite you to explore the detailed earnings presentation available both on our website and the stock exchanges. Good evening, and thank you again.