What is the India Post Payments Bank?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) on Saturday, which will significantly increase the reach and impact of banking sector in the country.

Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley and Communications Minister Mr. Manoj Sinha started operations of India Post Payments Bank in Delhi on January 30, 2017 as two pilot branches in Raipur and Ranchi through video conferencing from Delhi.

What is the India Post Payments bank?

• Trusted postman will now become unbanked and become a banker for at least the Indians, who do not yet have access to financial services. This launch will be more than double the number of bank branches in the country - currently more than 1.40 lakh to 2.90 lakh.

• Similarly, the number of rural branches in the country will increase from current 49,000 to 1.75 lakh.

• The reach and impact of the banking sector will increase significantly in the country.

• The approach of IPPB is to make the most accessible, affordable and dependable bank for the common man to lead the government's financial inclusion agenda.

• It will take advantage of the vast department of postal department, which will cover every corner of the country along with more than 300,000 Postmen and rural Postal servants. It will enable IPPB to bridge the last-mile gap in banking services.

• IPPB will have 650 branches spread across the country and 3250 access points.

• The bank will present a series of products like savings and current accounts, money transfer, direct benefit transfer, bill and utility payments, and enterprises and business payments.

• These products and related services will be offered in many channels (counter services, micro-ATMs, mobile banking applications, SMS and IVRs) using the state-of-the-art technology platform.

• All the 1.55 lakh post offices in the country will be connected to the IPPB system by December 31, 2018.