New Delhi: Government has shifted the launch of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to next date which will be announced soon. It was planned to be launched on August 21 at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi. The date has been changed due to the seven-day national mourning to pay homage to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The India Post Payments bank would be set up as a 100 per cent government-owned public limited company under the Department of Posts. With this, the government’s intention is to make banking easy for ordinary citizens.
The bank would have 650 branches as well as 3,250 access points co-located at post offices. Apart from this, almost 11,000 postmen will be providing doorstep banking in rural as well as urban areas. It has permission to link around 17 crore postal savings bank accounts. The government plans to link all the 1.55 lakh post office branches with IPPB services by the end of this year. Earlier this year, IPPB had launched its pilot operations in Raipur and Ranchi.
What is a payments bank?
Payment bank operates on a smaller scale which doesn’t involve any credit risk. It can carry out almost all the banking operations apart from issuing loan or credit cards. The payment bank can also accept demand deposits up to Rs 1 lakh and offer remittance services, mobile payments, transfers, purchases and other banking services like ATM/debit cards, net banking and third-party fund transfers.
The objectives of setting up of payments bank is to increase financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payments/remittance services to migrant labourers, low-income households, small businesses and other unorganised sector entities.
Services that India Post Payments Bank would offer will be Doorstep Banking and QR Card.
Doorstep banking service is one of the most distinct features of IPPB, making it very accessible. With an aim to ease access and encourage adoption of new-age banking and payment instruments, IPPB will utilise the services of postmen to offer doorstep banking in rural areas.
India Post Payments Bank’s doorstep banking will offer following services: account opening; cash deposits/withdrawals; money transfers; recharge and bill payments; third-party services like insurance, loans and investments; and other account-related services like updating PAN/nomination details, requesting account statement, issuing standing instructions and QR card issuance.
Besides mobile banking, phone banking and SMS banking, QR card is another service IPPB is offering. With the help of QR card, you can access your bank account, and make transactions without having to remember the account number. All the transactions will be authenticated via biometric verification, which means if you lose your QR card, your money would still be safe. You can make transactions using your QR Card in three steps: scan the code, authenticate through biometric verification; complete the transaction.
Existing India Post savings bank account holders will be allowed to link their accounts to IPPB accounts. India Post Payments Bank’s regular savings account has a cap on the maximum end-of-day balance of Rs 1 lakh. With the linkage feature, the end-of-day balance above Rs. 1 lakh can be swept into the customer’s linked post office savings account.
IPPB’s regular savings account offers the interest rate of 4 per cent p.a. which is paid quarterly and does not require customers to maintain any monthly average balance. Also, there’s no restriction on the number of cash deposits and withdrawals.
