AIPEU P3 CHQ

POSTAL BANK PLAN TAKES OFF WITH BID FOR FEASIBILITY STUDY

NEW DELHI: The government has formally kick-started the process for setting up a specialised banking services subsidiary under the department of post, a move which will take commercial banking services to all parts of the country.
The government has invited a tender for a detailed time-bound feasibility study for setting up the Post Bank of India (PBI), a proposed banking services arm of the department of posts. “The process has been initiated to design a detailed road map on establishment of the PBI,” an official in the ministry of communications and IT said, requesting anonymity. The department has already invited applications for request for proposal (RFP) from consulting firms to prepare the road map. The idea to set up PBI was first mooted in 2005 wherein a committee had suggested setting it up as a subsidiary commercial bank of the department of posts. As per the proposal, PBI would provide customer-friendly products and services and take commercial banking services to all parts of rural India.

The proposal to set up the PBI is an step towards expanding the government’s overall objective of financial inclusion, the official added. India Post has 39,173 post offices in rural areas and 15,862 post offices in urban areas.

The study will look into the specific areas of service delivery by the proposed PBI and will delve into the possibility of clubbing its services together with the already existing Post Office Small Savings Schemes. The total number of accounts with post offices has increased from 14.23 crore in 2003-04 to 20.50 crore in 2008-09, with over 8,000 post offices already been computerised.