India Post Payments Bank to be launched on Aug 21

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 21 will launch long-awaited India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) that will have at least one branch in every district and focus on financial services in rural areas, an official said.

“The Prime Minister has given time on August 21 to launch IPPB. Two branches of the bank are already operational. Rest of the 648 branches will be launched across country in every district," a senior official of the communications ministry said. IPPB will leverage reach of 1.55 lakh post office branches to provide banking and financial service to people in rural area.

"The government is trying to link all the 1.55 lakh post office branches with IPPB services by the end of this year," the official said. This will create the country's largest banking network with direct presence at village level.

IPPB CEO Suresh Sethi said that IPPB will go live with 650 branches in addition to 3,250 access points colocated at post offices and around 11,000 postmen both in rural and urban area will provide doorstep banking services.

IPPB has permission to link around 17 crore postal savings bank (PSB) account 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 help of mobile app or by visiting a post office.