 "India Post")
India Post Payments Bank would start its operations by September 2017, the government said on Thursday.
A certificate of incorporation came on Wednesday from the registrar of companies.
In June, communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked the department of posts (DoP) to expedite the process of setting up as many as 650 payments bank branches by that date, sources said.
Initially, most of the workforce will be on deputation from DoP. Gradually, they'd be replaced by new recruits.
The Cabinet had earlier cleared a proposal to set up the Bank with a corpus of Rs 800 crore. It is to cover the country by the end of financial year 2018-19.
DoP will set up 50 bank branches by March, 125 by April, 200 in May, 300 in June, 400 in July, 525 in August and 650 by September 2017.
The board of directors is likely to be constituted soon and the bank will begin hiring of professionals. “This could be the fastest rollout for a bank anywhere in the world,” went the official statement.
The stated aim is to become the most accessible bank in the world, riding on advanced banking and payments technology. Coupled with physical presence across 155,000 post offices and the reach of postmen, the Bank plan is for a powerful and effective vehicle of real financial inclusion.
“It is poised to create a national payments architecture, riding on a modern payments platform and ubiquitous information and communication technologies that can be accessed by all users and service providers like never before,” said the government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence day address, had stated that steps had been taken to convert all post offices into payments banks.
The Reserve Bank of India gave an in-principle nod in August 2015 for 11 entities to set up payments banks. Three have since opted out.
