India Post's payments bank to open 650 branches by April-May

The government is gearing to open 650 branches of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) by April-May next year as it looks to facilitate financial inclusion across the country, primarily in rural areas.

As per Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, the branches are likely to be functional in all the 650 districts of the country by April-May next year and all the rural post offices will be connected to these branches.

India has 154,000 post offices, of which 139,000 are rural post offices.

The IPPB has already missed the September deadline to open branches across the country, primarily because it failed to get a system integrator (SI) on board on time, upsetting its payments bank schedule.

IPPB had launched a pilot service in Raipur and Ranchi this January. The Department of Posts was one of the 11 entities to get an in-principle nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2015 for payments bank.

Suresh Sethi has been recently appointed as the bank's managing director and chief executive officer. An account holder in payments bank can deposit upto Rs 1 lakh, withdraw cash from authorised centres and make payments as done in case of normal saving bank accounts.

IPPB has been incorporated as a public limited company under the Department of Posts with 100 per cent government equity.