From next year, you could avail services of a bank at your nearest post office as the Centre has given the nod for setting up the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). The bank would run as a public limited company under the department of posts, with 100 percent government equity.

It would receive the license from the Reserve Bank of India by March 2017 and start its operations by September next year through 650 payments bank branches, linked post offices and alternative channels riding on technology including mobiles, ATMs, etc.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called the payments bank of the postal department to be a game changer. He said that with 1.54 lakh post offices, India’s network would be the largest in the world.

The government would be spending Rs 800 crore on the project and aims to target 40 percent of the country’s population that is outside the ambit of formal banking. The project would be rolled out in a phased manner. Initially, 650 branches would be set up along with 5,000 ATMs across the country.

Some of the facilities to be provided by these banks include payments and remittance services, financial services like insurance, mutual funds, pensions and access to credit in tie-up with third party financial providers.