Your friendly neighbourhood post office may soon also function as a bank. The department of posts is working on a plan to get a bank licence, which will be sent to the Cabinet for approval. Once it gets a go-ahead, the postal department will formally seek a licence from the Reserve Bank of India.
If the plan is approved and India Post gets to start its own banking operations, it has the potential to emerge as one of the biggest banks in the country, thanks to its massive network and reach. India Post, the largest postal network in the world, comprises 1.55 lakh post offices, of which nearly 1.4 lakh are in rural areas.
It already has 23.75 crore individual savings bank accounts and offers a whole range of financial services such as postal life insurance, pension payments and money transfer services.
"It will fulfill UPA's agenda for financial inclusion if we are a full-fledged bank. We have a huge network and wide reach in rural areas," said Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communications.
Globally, there are several successful examples. France's postal service, La Poste, began banking operations 'La Banque Postale' in 2006. In 2007, it had more than 11 million accounts and accounted for almost 25% of the postal service's turnover
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