India Post Payments Bank to be converted into small finance bank

New Delhi: The postal department said it has decided to convert the India Post Payments Bank into a small finance bank, enabling it to offer small loans to customers.

Besides, the department looks to open one crore accounts for IPPB in 100 days.

The decisions were taken at the annual Heads of Circles Conference held at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir from July 29-31, 2019 to adopt a 100-day action plan and a five-year vision to align the Department of Posts with the Prime Minister's New India initiative, a statement from the postal department said.

The decision included "Converting the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) into a Small Finance Bank (SFB) to provide micro credit at the doorsteps to individuals and SME's. Targeting the milestone of one crore accounts for IPPB in 100 days" among several other steps.

India Post will partner with Common Service Centre to provide a suite of citizen centric services such as banking, remittance, insurance, DBT, bill and tax payments etc at post offices, the statement said.

The postal department has decided to develope infrastructure to extend the reach of the e-commerce industry to tier 2 and 3 town as well as to rural areas by investing in 190 parcel hubs, 80 Nodal Delivery Centers and a Pan India Road Transport Network.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at the conference urged the officers of the Department at all levels to think to reform and perform in order to transform.

"In particular, he asked the Heads of Circles to leverage technology to strengthen Digital India by adopting Artificial intelligence, IOT and Cloud computing for citizen centric services," the statement said.