PM Narendra Modi To Launch India Post Payments Bank On Sept. 1
The payments bank’s launch was rescheduled in the wake of mourning declared after the demise of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sept. 1 will launch the long-awaited India Post Payments Bank that will have at least one branch in every district and focus on financial services in rural areas, a senior government official said.
“The launch of India Post Payments Bank has been rescheduled to Sept. 1. The Prime Minister will be launching it,” the official said.
The launch of the payments bank was recently rescheduled in the wake of the seven-day national mourning declared after the demise of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Prime Minister Modi was earlier supposed to launch it on Aug. 21.
The payments bank will leverage its reach of 1.55 lakh post office branches to provide banking and financial service to people in rural areas. “Government is trying to link all the 1.55 lakh post office branches with banking services by the end of this year.”
This will create the country’s largest banking network with direct presence at village level.
India Post Payments Bank Chief Executive Officer Suresh Sethi had earlier said that the bank will go live with 650 branches in addition to 3,250 access points co-located at post offices and around 11,000 postmen in rural and urban areas will provide doorstep banking services.
IPPB has the permission to link around 17 crore postal savings bank accounts with its account.
With IPPB in place, people in rural area will be able to avail digital banking and financial services, including money transfer, to any bank account either with the help of mobile app or by visiting a post office.
IPPB was the third entity to receive payments bank permit after Airtel and Paytm. Payments banks can accept deposits of up to Rs 1 lakh per account from individuals and small businesses.
The postal payment bank has the permit to carry RTGS, NEFT, IMPS transactions that will enable IPPB customers to transfer and receive money from any bank account. With the third party tie-ups, account holders in IPPB will be able to avail financial services as in case of a regular banking customer.
The payment bank will be used by government to distribute NREGA wages, subsidies, pension etc.
The IPPB app which is expected to be launched on same day will enable customers to pay for services of around 100 firms including phone recharges and bill, electricity bill, DTH service, college fees etc that are present on Bharat Bill payments system of National Payments Corporation of India.