India Post is likely to launch the first two branches of its payments bank—India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)—in Ranchi and Raipur on a pilot basis, an official familiar with the plans told BloombergQuint. The two branches are likely to begin operations within a week.
Over the next couple of months, IPPB will be in a position to offer banks a network through which they can sell their products, said a second government official while speaking on the condition of anonymity. IPPB will also offer services through internet and mobile banking, and prepaid instruments like mobile wallets and debit cards, according to the website.
Payment banks are intended to offer deposit and remittance services to customers but are not allowed to lend directly. They can, however, cross-sell products by third party providers to their customers.
India Post has a wide network of 1,54,939 post offices, of which 1,39,222 post offices are located in rural areas. This network can be used by IPPB for selling third party products or for disbursal of subsidies, the second official quoted above said.
The Department of Posts was given an in-principle approval to launch a payments bank by the Reserve Bank of India on August 19, 2015. On being satisfied that the applicant has complied with the requisite conditions laid down by the regulator, a final licence is given. The process has now been completed for IPPB.
The training of employees for the payments bank division is already underway and the government will soon appoint a chief for the India Post Payments Bank. Department of Investments and Public Asset Management’s Joint Secretary A.P. Singh has been appointed as the interim managing director and chief executive officer. IPPB has invited applications to fill around 1,060 vacancies across the entity.
The government is banking on IPPB to further its financial inclusion agenda. As part of his last Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the India Post Payments Bank will help spread banking into the hinterlands.
"The post office is an example of our identity. We have revived and rejuvenated our post offices. It is now linked with the poor and small persons. If any government representative gets the affection of a common man in India, it is the postman. Everyone loves the postman and the postman also loves everybody, but we never paid attention towards them. We have taken a step to convert our post offices into payments banks. Starting with this, the payments bank will spread the chain of banks in the villages across the country in one go."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (August 15, 2016)
Source : http://www.bloombergquint.com
No comments:
Post a Comment