Lok Sabha Question No. 795 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-26
Subject: India Post Payments Bank
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Ajay Nishad

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF POSTS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 795 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26 TH  JUNE, 2019

## INDIA POST PAYMENTS BANK

## †795. SHRI AJAY NISHAD:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has set up India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) as a Public Limited Company under the Department of Posts and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the status of IPPB and the benefits provided/likely to be provided by the setting up of this bank;
- (c) the details of the branches opened by IPPB in the country so far, State/UT-wise and the time by which its branches are likely to be set up in all the States of the country;
- (d) whether IPPB has installed ATMs and issued debit cards all over the country and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise; and
- (e) whether  various  institutions  including  global  banking  institution  like  World  Bank  have shown interest to get associated with IPPB and if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) The  India  Post  Payments  Bank  has  been  incorporated  as  a  Public  Limited  Company  with 100% Government of India (GOI) equity on 17.08.2016, under Department of Posts, Ministry  of Communications.
- (b) IPPB was launched cross the country on Sept 1, 2018. IPPB has enabled more than 1,35,000 Banking Access Points, out of which 1,10,000 are in rural areas, thereby increasing the rural banking infrastructure by 2.5 times.

More than 2,00,000 Doorstep Banking Service Providers (Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks) have  been  trained  and  certified  to  provide  a  comprehensive  suite  of  banking  services  including completely paperless  and  instant  Account  Opening,  Cash  Deposits/  Withdrawal,  Money  transfers, Bill Payments and Government to Citizen (G2C) Payments.

The benefits provided by India Post Payments are at Annexure I

- (c) As per the approved plan 650 IPPB branches (almost one in each district) have been set up and functional across all the States and Union Territories, details of which are at Annexure - II.
- (d) IPPB  is  focused  towards  building  a  less  cash  and  digital  economy  and  enabling  digital financial inclusion at the last mile. With these objectives, IPPB has enabled approximately 200,000 doorstep banking service providers with micro-ATM devices (Smartphone and biometric device) to provide a full  suite  of  banking  services  (including  Cash  Deposits/  Withdrawal,  Account  Opening, Money transfers, Bill Payments and DBT distribution) at the customer's doorstep. Therefore, IPPB has not invested in physical ATMs.

Further considering low penetration of ATMs in rural India, IPPB has established linkages with all the interoperable Payment and Settlement Systems (UPI, IMPS, NEFT etc.) to enable digital transactions and hence has not issued any Debit Cards.

- (e) IPPB is in early stages of discussion with various global & domestic institutions to enhance its product suite, as per the Payment Bank guidelines governing third party products.

## The benefits provided by India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)

1. The IPPB aims at removing barriers to accessing basic financial services by the common man and spearheading  the  agenda  of    Financial  Inclusion.  The  IPPB  has  its  focus  on  social  sector beneficiaries, migrant labourers, un organised sector, MSMEs, Panchayats, low-income households and  the  unbanked  and  under-  banked  segments  in  both  rural  and  urban  areas  bringing  the  large number of people in formal banking channel.
2. The IPPB is helping Direct Beneficiary Transfers (DBT) payments directly into the accounts of beneficiaries without the need of intermediaries.
3. IPPB has generated employment opportunities for 3500 employees.
4.  It has helped to propagate financial literacy and awareness across the country.
5. IPPB is also offering doorstep banking especially to senior citizens, specially abled persons delivered by Postmen and Grameen Dak Sevaks (GDSs) with nominal fees.
6. The digital services and transactions reduces the burden of handling physical cash in the economy and contributes towards less cash economy.

## ANNEXURE - I

The details of India of Payments Bank branches are as under:

| State                       |   No. of IPPB Branches |
|-----------------------------|------------------------|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands |                      1 |
| Andhra Pradesh              |                     24 |
| Arunachal Pradesh           |                     10 |
| Assam                       |                     26 |
| Bihar                       |                     38 |
| Chhattisgarh                |                     27 |
| Delhi                       |                      3 |
| Goa                         |                      2 |
| Gujarat                     |                     31 |
| Haryana                     |                     20 |
| Himachal Pradesh            |                     12 |
| Jammu and Kashmir           |                      8 |
| Jharkhand                   |                     22 |
| Karnataka                   |                     31 |
| Kerala                      |                     14 |
| Madhya Pradesh              |                     42 |
| Maharashtra                 |                     40 |
| Manipur                     |                      9 |
| Meghalaya                   |                      8 |
| Mizoram                     |                      6 |
| Nagaland                    |                      9 |
| Odisha                      |                     33 |
| Punjab                      |                     23 |
| Rajasthan                   |                     33 |
| Sikkim                      |                      1 |
| Tamil Nadu                  |                     37 |
| Telangana                   |                     23 |
| Tripura                     |                      5 |
| Uttar Pradesh               |                     79 |
| Uttarakhand                 |                     14 |
| West Bengal                 |                     19 |
| Grand Total                 |                    650 |

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