The Department of Posts is planning to set up the board and appoint CEO and COO of the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) in the next 45 to 60 days and has already written to some public sector banks to nominate their executive director and board members for the same.
The IPPB, which is set to be operational by March next year starting with 50 branches, will also come out with an request for proposal (RFP) in a few days to invite bids for selection of a technology partner.
The bank, which will expand its branch strength to 650 by September 2017, also plans to hire over 2000 employees. Also, all the post offices across the country will have a separate counter for the bank where postal employees will act as business correspondents for providing banking services.
The board of the bank will comprise of 9 members, of which 5 will be independent members and the remaining four will be in-house representatives.
For independent members, a list of about 25-30 people have already been prepared, of which the 5 will be shortlisted.
"We have written to select public sector banks like Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Union Bank to recommend their executive director level or board members who may be interested for the post of CEO and COO on deputation basis," Postal Secretary S K Sinha said here.
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The department has not approached SBI because it has already tied up with a payments bank of a private entity which will be in conflict with the interest of IPPB.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) will finally decide on the CEO and COO.
The department is also in the process to register the name of the bank, which is likely to be done in a month or 45 days.
The Government had approved Rs 800 crore for IPPB which will have Rs 400 crore equity and Rs 400 crore grant.
Meanwhile, to create awareness and boost its stamp sales, Sinha has written to the Secretary of Department of School Education and Literacy SC Khuntia, seeking inclusion of a chapter on philately in textbooks of either Class V, VI, or VII.
Around two months ago, a similar letter was written at the joint secretary level, but elicited no response from the HRD ministry, and hence the communication was made at the secretary level around 15 days back.
Though the government has witnessed fall in number of letters sent over the past several years, it is banking on the fact that globally, philately market has shown steady growth and the revenue generated from postage stamp sales is increasing annually.
The secretary also said that to leverage the benefits of the booming e-commerce growth, the postal department has tied up with companies like Snapdeal and Shopclues for sale of philatelic stamps and ancillaries on the platform.