Govt to roll out 650 branches of India Post Payments Bank by April: Sinha

The government expects to rollout all 650 branches of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) by April, 2018, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Communication Manoj Sinha said IPPB has launched 2 pilot branches on January 30, 2017 at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Ranchi (Jharkhand) in 2016-17.

However, no branch was rolled out in the current financial year, Sinha said.

RBI granted the licence to IPPB on January 20, 2017 to carry out payments bank activities.

The minister said IPPB aims to have a pan-India reach and subject to feasibility, all post offices (approximately 1.55 lakh) across the country will progressively become its access points to provide banking products and services as per RBI guidelines on payments bank.

In reply to a separate question on IPPB, Sinha said the payments bank proposes to tie up with banking and other financial institutions and expressions of interest for tie-ups have been received.

Also, preliminary discussions are on in this regard.

"IPPB has entered into an MoU with Punjab National Bank (PNB) and PNB MetLife India Insurance Company Ltd," Sinha said.

IPPB was incorporated on August 17, 2016 under Companies Act, 2013 as a public limited company with 100 per cent Government of India equity under Department of Posts, he said.