Jio Financial Services Strengthens Its Board With Isha Ambani, Two Others As Directors

Jio Financial Services (JFS) said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Isha Ambani, Anshuman Thakur, and Hitesh Kumar Sethia as directors of the company. 

An exchange filing by the recently listed entity revealed that the central bank initiated its letter of approval on November 15, which will be valid for six months.

“…we grant prior approval for appointment of Ms. Isha Mukesh Ambani, Shri Anshuman Thakur and Shri Hitesh Kumar Sethia as Directors of the Company… This approval is valid only for six months from the date of this letter,” the disclosure noted.

Isha Ambani has been managing key businesses of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) over the last few years. She was also appointed as one of the non-executive directors of RIL in August this year.

On the other hand, Hitesh Kumar Sethia is the MD and CEO of JFS, and Anshuman Thakur is the senior VP of strategy and planning at RIL.

JFS was demerged from RIL in July and listed on the bourses in August this year. The deep-pocket fintech entity has emerged as one of the major competitors to the fintech startups across segments, including payments, insurance, and asset management.

Hence, currently, JFS is competing with most fintech players, including Paytm, PhonePe, BharatPe, PB Fintech, InsuranceDekho, CRED, Zerodha, and Groww, just to count a few.

Earlier this year, JFS partnered with the world’s largest asset management company BlackRock to tap into India’s mutual fund market. 

The company recently launched a soundbox, along with a range of other offerings – from personal and merchant lending to insurance and retail payments. 

JFS saw its consolidated profit after tax (PAT) double sequentially to INR 668.2 Cr in Q2 FY24 while its operating revenue increased over 61% quarter-on-quarter to INR 608 Cr.

Shares of JFS jumped over 2% during Thursday’s intraday trade on the BSE. The stock ended the day 1.23% higher at INR 227.