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Mumbai, July 24
The distance to access banking services is now ‘0 km’. Doorstep Banking Services will now be available in every village, with about 1.90 lakh Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) being trained to serve as ‘mobile bankers’ in addition to postal service providers, according to India Post’s latest annual report
These ‘mobile bankers’ will provide Doorstep Banking Services to customers of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) as well other banks, the report said.
According to the department, of the more than 1.36 lakh post offices that have been enabled to provide banking facilities, 1.10 lakh are in rural India, increasing by almost 2.5 times banking infrastructure in those areas.
It estimates that with post offices providing banking services, the average ‘distance to a rural banking service point’ has been reduced to 2.5 km (average distance to a post office) from 5-6 km (rural bank branch infrastructure).
“With the launch of the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) service in August 2019, IPPB is one of the single largest platforms providing interoperable doorstep banking services to any bank customer,” the report said.
As of December-end 2021, IPPB had 4.93 crore customers, with 98 per cent of accounts being opened at the customers’ doorstep. Ninety per cent of its customers are from rural areas.
Among the services offered by IPPB are savings/ current accounts, money transfer, virtual debit cards, bill payments, Aadhaar Pay service for merchants, and life and general insurance.
Cash withdrawal from any account (AePS), cash deposit to any account (direct money transfer), and payment by cash towards bills, insurance premiums and loan EMIs are some of the services offered by IPPB to customers of other banks.
IPPB was set up by the government as a public limited company under India Post in 2016 to improve the common man’s access to basic financial services, especially in unbanked and under-banked areas.
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