The Union Cabinet approved a proposal to set up India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) as a public limited company under the department of posts.
650 branches of the postal payments bank will be set up initially across India, which will be linked to rural post offices,India has 1.54 lakh post offices, of which 1.39 lakh are rural ones.
In Chennai, Chennai General Post Office (GPO) is likely to be first post bank in the State to be launched early next year. Payment banks will deal with money remittances of all kinds to people. This could be useful to people particularly in rural areas who have limited access to banks.
Officials of the postal department said such post banks would function as separate entity and function according to the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India.