• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has successfully disbursed over Rs 45,000 crore in Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) to beneficiaries under various government schemes, said the Ministry of Communication while IPPB’s seventh Foundation Day on September 1.

• Launched on September 1, 2018, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, IPPB was established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication to provide the most accessible, affordable, and trusted digital banking services to underserved and unbanked families at their doorstep.

• The IPPB has made significant strides in bridging the financial inclusion gap, leveraging India Post’s extensive network of over 161,000 post offices and 1,90,000 postal employees during the last seven years.

• In the last seven years, the IPPB enabled paperless, cashless and presence-less banking while acquiring over 9.88 crore customer accounts.

• IPPB also enabled Digital Life Certificate services for more than 20 lakh pensioners.

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB)

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) was set up under the department of post with 100 per cent equity owned by the government of India. 

• It was first started as a pilot project on January 30, 2017 in Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Raipur (Chhattisgarh). 

• IPPB was launched on September 1, 2018. It has expanded its strength across the country covering Post Offices, through a network of 650 IPPB branches/controlling offices, working on a hub and spoke model.

• The bank has been set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India. 

• IPPB aims to provide every household in India an access to efficient banking services and enable them to become financially secure and empowered.

• The fundamental mandate of IPPB is to remove barriers for the unbanked and under-banked and reach the last mile leveraging a network comprising over 161,000 Post Offices (143,000 in rural areas) and over 190,000 postal employees.

• IPPB’s reach and its operating model is built on the key pillars of India Stack — enabling paperless, cashless and presence-less banking in a simple and secure manner at the customers’ doorsteps, through a CBS-integrated smartphone and biometric device. 

• With a high focus on ease of banking for the masses, IPPB delivers simple and affordable banking solutions through intuitive interfaces available in many languages. 

• IPPB is committed to provide a fillip to a less cash economy and contribute to the vision of Digital India. 

• Postmen & Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) have been provided the right training, technology and the devices, to convert them from just postal service providers to mobile bankers who are fully capable of providing doorstep banking services to the customers of IPPB as well as of other banks, who find accessing their banks difficult.

• The enablement of Post Offices to provide banking services has reduced the average ‘distance to a rural banking service point’ from 5-6 km (rural bank branch infrastructure) to 2.5 km (average distance to a Post Office).

Other key points on IPPB:

• Nearly 50 per cent of account holders are women. 

• Around 98 per cent of accounts opened at doorsteps of customers.

• 90 per cent of customers are from rural areas.

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