New Delhi: What was termed as the biggest initiative of financial inclusion in the country by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at its launch, the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a ‘Digital-First Bank’ built on the rails of wide physical distribution network of India Post under the Ministry of Communication, has announced a major milestone since inception towards achieving its financial inclusion goals through digital banking. It has crossed the five-crore customer mark in three years of commencement of operations to become one of the fastest growing digital payments banks in the country.
IPPB opened up these five crore accounts in digital and paperless mode through its 1.36 lakh Post Offices out of which 1.20 lakh are in rural areas with the help of about 1.47 lakh doorstep banking service providers. With this, IPPB has achieved the world’s largest digital financial literacy programme by building a financially aware and empowered customer-base leveraging the strength of 280000 Post Office employees. IPPB has further stated that it has taken digital banking to the grassroots-levels through Interoperable Payments and Settlement Systems of NPCI, RBI and UIDAI offering services in over 13 languages.
Interestingly, out of the total account holders, around 48 per cent were women account holders; while 52 per cent were male that indicating the Bank’s focus on bringing the women customers under the banking network. About 98 per cent of accounts of women were opened at the doorsteps and over 68 per cent of women were availing DBT benefit. In yet another milestone, IPPB revealed that it attracted youths to avail digital banking services. Over 41 per cent of account holders were in the age group of 18 to 35 years.
Vineet Pandey, Secretary, Department of Posts, said: “At India Post, we are committed towards becoming one of the largest financial inclusion networks in India, covering both urban and rural India. Reaching to five crore customers in a short span of 3 years speaks of the success of this model of providing cost – effective, simple, easy and secure digital ecosystem, particularly to rural India. We are happy that we could empower rural women too, to avail the banking services at their doorsteps.”
J Venkatramu, MD and CEO, India Post Payments Bank, said, “It is a moment of pride for the Bank, as we have moved from strength to strength while building this customer base while providing uninterrupted banking and G2C services even during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Bank is able to scale its customer acquisition on a fully digital and paperless banking platform serving people at their doorstep. The bank is committed to serve the rural, under-banked and unbanked citizens through collaboration and co-creation of suitable products and services.” /BI/
