Vodafone completed the national rollout of M-Pesa in India this week but warned that its distribution of the mobile money service is limited by the country’s banking regulation.

The operator, which partners local financial institution ICICI Bank on the rollout, launched M-Pesa this week in the state of Andhra Pradesh to reach national coverage.

M-Pesa is available through 60,000 agent outlets across India and serves over 1.2 million customers.

Just in Andhra Pradesh alone, the service will be available through more than 3,800 agents, including over 700 Vodafone-exclusive stores.

Vodafone’s 60,000-strong agent network surpasses even that of the State Bank of India, which has 38,000 outlets.

Yet by international comparison, the number is not so impressive. Kenya, which is admittedly the home of M-Pesa but a much smaller country than India, has 70,000 agents.

Suresh Sethi, who heads Vodafone’s M-Pesa effort in India, told Business Today that the operator’s footprint is limited by regulation: “My entire distribution is restricted. We have to be in radius of 30 kilometres of an ICICI Bank.”

According to Reserve Bank of India regulation, none of Vodafone’s M-Pesa outlets can be more than 30 kilometres distance from its banking partner.

Sethi is also concerned about RBI regulations which restricts the person depositing money in a M-Pesa account from taking it out. Hence the need for a tie-up with a bank.

Documentation of the person who takes out cash from their own account needs to be approved by ICICI Bank, he said.