What an idea!

This is such a fantastic idea! One of those which makes’ us wonder, “this was right on our face; why did we not think of this before?”

Our India Post has time and again come up with some innovative ideas; call it survival instincts or whatever but surly they do think. The latest – India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) will give postmen smartphones for doorstep banking to customers predominantly in rural areas.

The bank is currently training postmen to carry out basic banking facilities such as opening bank accounts and conducting transactions on the mobile phone. Besides assisting customers, the postmen will also teach them how to perform transactions on their own. Customers will be able to access a range of services including net banking, National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), Real-time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). They will be able to pay utility bills, invest in mutual funds and buy insurance products on the app.

The aim is that by end of this year, 2 lakh postmen and gramin dak sewaks carrying mobile phones will offer doorstep banking to customers predominantly in rural areas. Eventually, this number will increase to 3.5 lakh. It plans to open 3,250 customer access points across 650 districts when it launches operations in March, seeking to cater largely to under-banked rural areas.

The India Post currently has 1,55,000 post offices which are technologically upgraded out of which, 1,29,000 are in villages.

IPPB is 100% owned by India Post and it got the license from RBI in Jan 2017 for being a payments bank.