The Bank was incorporated as ‘Janalakshmi Financial Services Private Limited’ on July 24, 2006 at Bengaluru, Karnataka as a private limited company under the Companies Act, 1956, and was granted the certificate of incorporation by the Registrar of Companies, Karnataka at Bengaluru (RoC). Janalakshmi Financial Services Private Limited, was granted a certificate of registration dated March 4, 2008 by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to commence the business of non-banking financial institution without accepting public deposits, and was converted into an NBFC-MFI with effect from September 5, 2013. Subsequently, pursuant to a Board resolution dated June 1, 2015 and a Shareholders’ resolution dated June 29, 2015, the Bank was converted into a public limited company under the Companies Act, 1956 with effect from August 10, 2015, and the name of the Bank was changed from ‘Janalakshmi Financial Services Private Limited’ to ‘Janalakshmi Financial Services Limited’, and a fresh certificate of incorporation of the Bank was issued by the RoC under such name. Janalakshmi Financial Services Limited, was granted a fresh certificate of registration as a non-banking financial institution without accepting public deposits dated September 18, 2015 pursuant to such name change. The Bank, then known as Janalakshmi Financial Services Limited, was granted an in-principle approval by the RBI to convert into a small finance bank (SFB) on October 7, 2015. Thereafter, the Bank received the final approval, dated April 28, 2017 from the RBI, to establish and carry on business as an SFB. Pursuant to resolutions passed by the Board and Shareholders on May 30, 2017 and January 12, 2018 respectively, the name of the Bank was changed from ‘Janalakshmi Financial Services Limited’ to ‘Jana Small Finance Bank Limited’, and a fresh certificate of incorporation dated January 29, 2018 was issued by the RoC consequent upon the change of name. The Bank commenced its business as an SFB with effect from March 28, 2018 and its name was included in the second schedule to the RBI Act pursuant to a notification dated July 16, 2019 issued by the RBI.

The bank is the fourth largest Small Finance Bank in terms of Assets Under Management (AUM) and the fourth largest Small Finance Bank in terms of deposit size as at September 30, 2023. It was incorporated on July 24, 2006, registered as a non-banking finance company (NBFC) on March 4, 2008, and it was awarded non-banking finance company-microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI) status on September 5, 2013. It started operating as a Small Finance Bank with effect from March 28, 2018 and became a Scheduled Commercial Bank on July 16, 2019. The bank has gained an understanding of the financial needs of underbanked and underserved customers over the past 16 years. During this journey, apart from obtaining an in-depth understanding of customer behaviour and requirements in the segment, it has taken multiple steps to improve the customer experience. This has been achieved through a combination of measures, such as digital sourcing and digital disbursement of loans.

The bank is also a corporate agent for third-party life insurance products, general (non-life) insurance products and health insurance products, including COVID-19 insurance products. It also offers Point of Sales (POS) terminals and payment gateway services through its merchant acquiring partners. In addition to delivering its products and services through banking outlets and ATMs, it delivers its products and services through business correspondents, ATM cum debit cards, mobile banking platforms, internet banking portals and SMS alerts. In line with its vision, it has been upgrading its technology platforms. A significant proportion of the bank’s sourcing and collections across assets and liabilities are digitalised using mobile phones / tablets, with an emphasis on straight through processing while incorporating fraud and regulatory checks. PAN validation, e-KYC, credit bureau checks supporting multiple bureaus, and AML checks are fully automated using an integration layer. Its digital liability account opening platform, DIGIGEN (www.janadigi.com), provides a fully digital self on-boarding platform for opening accounts. DIGIGEN, coupled with its video-KYC platform enables digital only deposit accounts to be opened by its customers. It has also invested in various technologies, infrastructure, and tools to drive data analytics and to convert its data into impactful insights on the behavioural trends of its customers and prospective customers. 

Business area of the bank

The bank is a non-banking finance company (NBFC) primarily engaged in providing MSME loans, affordable housing loans, term loans to NBFC, loans against fixed deposits, two-wheeler loans and gold loans. Its primary unsecured loan products are individual and micro business loans, agricultural and allied loans, and group loans (group loans are offered to a group of women as per the Joint Liability Group (JLG) model). Since becoming a Small Finance Bank, it has focused on increasing its secured gross advances to diversify its advances, and within unsecured advances, it has focused on growing its agricultural and allied loans.  

Awards, accreditations and recognitions 

• 2016: ‘Best Financial Service Firm in India’ by VC Circle for the year 2016.
• 2017: Goodwill Brand Award 2017 by Process Evaluators and Research, BARC Asia.
• 2017: Featured in ‘Fortune – The top 500’ list of largest corporations in India for the year 2017.
• 2018: Winner at the cfi.co Finance Awards for ‘Best Inclusive Financial Service India 2018’ by CapitalFinance International.
• 2019: Runner-up at the Global Leadership Award 2019 by Dale Carnegie.
• 2020: Campaign Decade - Plus - award by RMAI Flame Awards Asia
• 2020 Featured in ‘Fortune – The top 500’ list of largest corporations in India for the year 2020.
• 2020: Winner at the cfi.co Inclusive Finance Awards for ‘Best Inclusive Financial Service India 2020’ by CapitalFinance International.
• 2020: CSR award for excellence in BFSI sector by Golden Globe Tigers 2020 in December 2020.
• 2020: Campaign Decade - Plus - Gold award by RMAI Flame Awards Asia.
• 2022: Award for ‘Best IT Risk Management’ by Indian Banks Association.
• 2023: Best Data Quality- SFB Consumer Award 2022-23 by TransUnion CIBIL Limited.

Major events and milestones

• 2015: Received in-principal approval by the RBI to convert to an SFB.
• 2015: RBI granted certificate of registration to commence the business of non-banking financial institution without accepting public deposits.
• 2016: Investment by Caladium Investment Pte. Ltd in the Bank of approximately Rs 3,705 million.
• 2017: Received RBI Final Approval for commencement of SFB operations.
• 2017: Investment by Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance in the Bank of approximately Rs 1,500 million, Rs 50 million and Rs 1,000 million, respectively.
• 2018: Investment by HarbourVest Partners Co-Investment Fund IV L.P and ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company in the Bank of approximately Rs 2,574 million and Rs 503 million, respectively.
• 2018: Launched Gold Loan.
• 2018: Commenced Commercial Operations as an SFB.
• 2019: Included in the second schedule to the RBI Act.
• 2019: Launched Affordable Housing Loan.
• 2019: Investment by Amansa Holdings Pte. Ltd and Hero Enterprise Partner Ventures in the Bank of approximately Rs 2,150 million and Rs 300 million, respectively.
• 2020: The bank’s gross AUM was Rs 112,630.35 million and served over 3.05 million active customers as on September 30, 2020.
• 2020: Crossed Rs 102,299.09 million deposit as on September 30, 2020.
• 2020: Launch of DigiGen – Fully integrated, paperless and digital account opening and KYC process.
• 2020: Launched Two-Wheeler Loan.
• 2021: The bank’s gross AUM was Rs 153,473.37 million as on March 31, 2021.
• 2023: The bank has recorded highest ever PAT of Rs 2,559.71 million for the financial year ended March 31, 2023.
• 2023: Investment of Rs 3,066.19 million raised by new investors.
• 2023: Investment by Dovetail, Deepak Talwar, Volrado, Singularity in the Bank of Rs 200 million, Rs 10 million, Rs 530 million, and Rs 380 million, respectively.
• 2023: The bank has a pan-India distribution network and as on March 31, 2023, it crossed 754 branches of which 272 are Unbanked Rural Centers and 61 ATMs.
• 2023: The bank’s gross AUM was Rs 201,018.01 million as on March 31, 2023.