After much delay, and over a year and half after it began a pilot, the India Post Payments Bank (India Post PB) has finally formally commenced operations in 650 branches and 3,250 access points across the country. Leveraging the postal services ecosystem The government backed entity’s primary focus is on delivering financial services to rural areas by leveraging its massive network of post office branches, which it will link to the India Post PB system. The government said that it will connect all 15.5 million post offices in the country to the India Post PB system by December this year. It will also deploy postal services staff - around 300,000 postmen for banking services at homes. The payments bank also has a provision under which, whenever a deposit in an account exceeds Rs 1 lakh, it will be transferred to a Post Office Saving Banks (POSB), according to reports. It has received permission to link around 17 crore POSB accounts. The payments bank also got a boost last week when the Union Cabinet increased its budget by 80% or Rs 635 crore to Rs 1,435 crore. Of this, while Rs 400 crore has been allocated towards technology related costs, and Rs 235 crore was allocated to human resources. What Payments Banks can and cannot do India Post PB has also tied up with Punjab National Bank and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance to offer loans and insurances products. It is also in talks with the State Bank of India (SBI) to provide loans and mutual funds…
