Bajaj Finance pivots to profitability with AI, scales back payments ambitions
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : Bajaj Finance Ltd, one of India’s leading non-bank lenders, is scaling back its ambitions in the payments and credit card businesses as part of a revised five-year roadmap, BFL 3.0.
The new plan shifts focus to profitability through artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, operational efficiency, and deepening relationships with its existing customer base. The move signals a sharp pivot from the company's earlier aggressive growth strategy, reflecting the challenges of balancing innovation with sustainable returns in a competitive and regulated financial landscape.
Under the previous five-year plan, Bajaj Finance sought to establish itself as a dominant player in the payments and credit card markets. It aggressively expanded offerings such as UPI, pre-paid wallets, Merchant QR codes, bill payments, and FASTag, according to Rajeev Jain, managing director of Bajaj Finance.
The company also targeted substantial market share growth in payments and strengthened co-branded credit card partnerships with RBL Bank and DBS Bank India. However, under the revised plan, the lender has tempered its goals, reducing its market-share target for the payments business to 1% of gross merchandise value (GMV) by FY29, down from the earlier target of 3%.
It has also decided to exit its co-branded credit card distribution partnerships, citing regulatory restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that limit the role of co-brand partners to merely sourcing customers. “Given the new regulatory environment where they’re principally saying you can only do (credit card) distribution and nothing else, it did not make sense for us to monetize our customer base for just ₹1,500 or ₹2,000 per
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