India Post expects to start core banking pilot in Delhi

The Department of Posts will start a pilot for core banking services in the national capital on January 27 and expects to formally launch it by March-end.
"On Monday, India Post will start the pilot of core banking services in Delhi," an official source told PTI.
The Department of Posts, which is under the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, has started such pilot projects in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It plans to set up 1,000 ATMs to transform its financial services.
Delhi will initially have 20 ATMs installed at post offices from where customers of other banks will be able to transact. By March, 90 of the 350 post offices in Delhi are expected to be connected with core banking services.

India Post is among the applicants for new bank licences that will be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.
The department has been trying to get approval from the Public Investment Board under the Finance Ministry for a Rs 623 crore fund that India Post needs for the banking licence.

Minister for Communications and IT Kapil Sibal on Friday said his ministry has been trying hard to persuade the Finance Ministry to get the proposal cleared.
"We are yet to go some way to convert the postal department into a post bank. We have been fighting this battle and we are not going to give it up till we reach a logical conclusion," Sibal said.

The department plans to ramp up the number of ATMs at the pan-India level to 3,000 by September 2015.