Milestone: India Post Payments Bank customer base crosses 5 crore mark

New Delhi: India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a 'Digital-First Bank' built on the rails of the wide physical distribution network of India Post under the Ministry of Communication, has announced a major milestone since its inception towards achieving its financial inclusion goals through digital banking. In an official announcement on Tuesday, IPPB announced that it has crossed the five-crore customer mark in three years of commencement of operations to become one of the fastest-growing digital payments banks in the country. IPPB opened up these five crore accounts in digital and paperless mode through its 1.36 lakh Post O?ces, out of which 1.20 lakh are in rural areas with the help of about 1.47 lakhs doorstep banking service providers.

With this, IPPB has achieved the world's largest digital ?nancial literacy programme by building a ?nancially aware and empowered customer base leveraging the strength of 2,80,000 Post O?ce employees. IPPB has further stated that it has taken digital banking to the grassroots levels through interoperable payments and settlement systems of NPCI, RBI and UIDAI offering services in over 13 languages.

Interestingly, out of the total account holders, around 48 percent were women account holders; while 52 percent were male that indicating the Bank's focus on bringing the women customers under the banking network. About 98 percent of accounts of women were opened at the doorsteps and over 68 percent of women were availing DBT bene?ts. In yet another milestone, IPPB revealed that it attracted youths to avail digital banking services. Over 41 percent of account holders were in the age group of 18 to 35 years.

Speaking about this landmark occasion, Department of Posts' Secretary Vineet Pandey (IPoS) said, "At India Post, we are committed to becoming one of the largest ?nancial inclusion networks in India, covering both urban and rural India. Reaching to ?ve crore customers in a short span of 3 years speaks of the success of this model of providing cost – e?ective, simple, easy and secure digital ecosystem, particularly to rural India. We are happy that we could empower rural women too, to avail the banking services at their doorsteps."

India Post Payments Bank's MD & CEO J Venkatramu said, "It is a moment of pride for the bank, as we have moved from strength to strength while building this customer base while providing uninterrupted banking and G2C services even during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Bank is able to scale its customer acquisition on a fully digital and paperless banking platform serving people at their doorstep. The bank is committed to serving the rural, under-banked and unbanked citizens through collaboration and co-creation of suitable products and services."

With this view, IPPB has been able to leverage upon its parental strength of the Department of Posts and is steadily transforming and reshaping the ?nancial inclusion landscape across the country. In the near future, our endeavour is to build a uni?ed service platform o?ering various citizen-centric ?nancial services, including credit, at the doorstep by leveraging India stack such as JAM, Sahmati etc.

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