Your friendly neighbourhood postman is about to become a banker [IPPB]

NEW DELHI: Do you think the once-ubiquitous postman has been reduced to an anachronism in the age of the internet? Think again. Now postmen will be bringing digital banking to the doorsteps of crores of people with the launch of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB).

The government is planning to launch IPPB at a grand function in Delhi’s Talkatora stadium on August 21. Set up us a 100% government-owned public limited company under the Department of Posts, IPPB is aimed at making banking easy for ordinary citizens. It will go live with 650 branches in addition to 3,250 access points co-located at post offices and around 11,000 postmen both in rural and urban area will provide doorstep banking services. 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?

A payments bank is like any other bank, but operating on a smaller scale without involving any credit risk. In simple words, it can carry out most banking operations but can’t advance loans or issue credit cards. It can 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 banks 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.

Here are a few unique services offered by the India Post Payments Bank:

Doorstep banking

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. IPPB’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.

What you pay for doorstep banking:

• Customer On-boarding: NIL

• Digital Transaction (Transaction other than cash deposits and withdrawals): Rs 15 per Transaction

• Cash Transaction (Cash Withdrawal, Cash Deposit): Rs. 25 per Transaction

Limits of Cash Deposit & Cash Withdrawal at Access Points & Doorstep

*Limits are per customer per day

 

QR card

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.

Linkage with post office savings account

Existing India Post savings bank account holders will be allowed to link their accounts to IPPB accounts. IPPB's regular savings account has a cap on 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 interest rate of 4% 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.