India Post is going to receive a final license, from the Central Bank to start its payment bank operations. The government has also appointed Mr. AP Singh as the interim MD and CEO of the India Post Payment Bank. A 1986 Indian Postal Service Officer, he was earlier appointed as the Deputy Director General incharge of financial inclusion and payment systems at Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Joint Secretary for the department of disinvestment, ministry of Finance. Singh was also part of the founding team that launched “Aadhaar” and was stationed at the department of Post prior to UIDAI.
As per the initial road map, each post office in the country will be offering the post bank services. The department of post has an extensive network of around 1,55,000 post offices in the country. The branches are going to be co-located with the existing post offices. The idea is to centralize all the 650 branches which would be located in the postal district headquarters and all the branches under that particular head post offices will be enabled by the payment bank services. This will cover the complete network of 155,000 post offices.
Initially, the payments banks will be capable of accepting deposits from the small businesses and individuals of up to Rs 1 lakh per account. And RBI had set a condition that formal license has to be obtained before 31 March. While the operation of recently opened Payment Banks such as Paytm are likely to be focused on technology based differentiation, but India Post is banking on its huge reach especially in the rural areas which are showing a ray of hope to be successful.
India Post to Receive License to Start Payment Bank Operations
