“India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) would usher in economic transformation by bringing banks to the doorsteps of the villagers and the poor.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set this goal while launching India Post Payments Bank in 2018. IPPB is the fastest-growing digital payments bank in the country to cross the five crore subscriber mark within 3 years, which has been opened in digital and paperless mode through its 1.36 lakh post offices, of which 1.20 lakh are in rural areas with the help of about 1.47 lakh doorstep banking service providers.
Goal of this ‘Digital-First-Bank’ is to make the “technology” of modern finance available to a wider population. Dealing with the post GFC of 2008, one cannot help but notice that financial technology has been abused and credit growth has been non-responsible. This is where Responsible Financial Inclusion makes IPPB a world class leader in true sense.
The first and foremost target audience for IPPB services are rural population, migrant workers and small capital entrepreneurs. IPPB is well placed to utilize last mile connectivity of DoP to serve the agenda of responsible financial inclusion and financial growth of this prime target audience.
IPPB has achieved the world’s largest digital financial literacy program leveraging the strength of 2.8 lakh post office employees. It has taken digital banking to the grassroots level in more than 13 languages through interoperable payments and settlement systems of NPCI, RBI and UIDAI. Further, about 48% of the total account holders are women.
Building on the current capabilities, IPPB has to strive to become the intermediary by facilitating relevant information and processing and monitoring capability for following and earning fee rather than profit. Three clear domains are Peer-to-Peer lending, Company loan for salaried staff and SME cash management – all helped and managed by IPPB. These and similar business opportunities need to be capitalized upon in response to the changing paradigm of payments services and financial inclusion ecosystem.
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