NEW DELHI: The postal department is readying its game plan to roll out payment banking services — hoping to get a licence in a couple of months — and is closely looking at global models and preparing to hire top executives, people familiar with the matter said.
"Based on our discussions and interactions with the RBI ( Reserve Bank of India), we hope to get a nod by July," a senior official of the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology told ET. The central bank hopes to issue payment bank licences by the end of 2015, RBI Deputy Governor SS Mundra said recently.
The postal department expects to make the payment bank viable within three years of operations. Payment banks can accept deposits and can't offer credit. "Our calculations show that we will be able to generate profits of close to .`91 crore by the end of five years," the official said.
In February, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had thrown his weight behind India Post's application, saying the government hoped to utilise its vast network of about 1.55 lakh points of presence across the country to help promote schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, aimed at promoting access to financial services.
India Post has studied models of various postal bank models of China, Japan, Vietnam and France to chart out its growth plan. "We have set a target of opening around 650 branches by the fifth year of operations. Additionally, we hope to have around 25,000 spokes and 1.3 lakh access points across India," the official said.
According to guidelines issued by the RBI in November, payment banks can accept demand deposits, subject to a cap of .`1 lakh per customer, and provide payment and remittance services through the Internet, branches, business correspondents and mobile banking.
Payment banks cannot offer credit facilities directly, although they can act as agents of commercial banks for credit and other services.
Source: Economic Times
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