India Post Payments Bank teams up with HDFC for offering home loans

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and HDFC has entered into a strategic alliance to offer home loans to nearly 4.7 crore customers of the payments bank.

Leveraging its country-wide network of 650 branches and over 1,36,000 banking access points (Post offices), IPPB aims to make HDFC's home loan products and its expertise available to its customers across India, HDFC said in a statement.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the strategic alliance was signed between IPPB and HDFC Ltd on Monday.

"The partnership aims to facilitate HDFC's home loans to customers, especially in unbanked and underserved areas with many of them having little or no access to finance, to fulfill their dream of owning a home. IPPB will offer housing loans through nearly 190,000 banking service providers (Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks)," it said.

As per the MoU, credit, technical and legal appraisals, processing and disbursement for all home loans will be handled by HDFC Ltd while IPPB will be responsible for sourcing of loans, it said.

Speaking on the significance of the tie-up, IPPB MD J Venkatramu said financial inclusion cannot be achieved without enabling access to credit as a significant chunk of customers do not have a bank or a financial institution providing housing loans in their vicinity.

The alliance aims to make housing loans available and accessible, using a digitally enabled agent banking channel and position IPPB as a one-stop platform for all banking needs of customers, including credit, he said.

Commenting on this partnership, HDFC MD Renu Sud Karnad said, this alliance will go a long way to promote affordable housing in the remotest locations of our country in line with the Prime Minister's vision of Housing for All.

From its inception till date, IPPB has introduced a range of innovative and unique banking products and services catering to the needs and requirements of different customer segments and is also enabling easier digital adoption at the last mile through an assisted banking model.