“The
postal department has already conducted a study and has found that the
proposal is feasible. DPR (detailed project report) is the next step to
chalk out the exact blueprint for the model,” a senior official from the
department of posts (DoP) told Business Standard.
The
department will apply for a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of
India. Post Bank of India may be set up with the required authorised
capital of Rs 700 crore, the official added.
“The
plan is to offer banking services in rural and semi-urban areas by
converting our post offices into banks. The department has about 1.5
lakh post offices across the country, which is mainly located in rural
areas,” a source said.
The
department also operates the Post Office Savings Bank, where it has
over 240 million savings accounts. It has a customer base of over 23.75
crore with an outstanding balance of Rs 6,19,611 crore as on March 31,
2011.
The
postal department offers schemes such as savings account, recurring
deposit, time deposit, monthly income account scheme, postal life
insurance, public provident fund, Kisan Vikas Patras and National
Savings Certificates.
The
feasibility report has already laid out ownership, capital and
organisational structure, as well as new product and services to be
offered, among others.
According
to working group report for XII Plan, the demand for rural banking is
particularly high with only 39 per cent of households covered by
institutional banking. Globally, postal organisations have transformed
financial services into banks successfully. The global firms include
Deutsche Post Bank, Japan Post Bank, Kiwi Bank, La Banque Postale
(France).
The
department is also focusing aggressively on its postal life insurance
product. According to the information with the postal department, the
department has about 5 million policies under postal life insurance with
an assured amount of Rs 58,132 crore, while under rural postal life
insurance; it has about 13 million policies with an assured amount of Rs
67,162 crore.
The
PLI has been clocking an average growth rate of 32 per cent in terms of
premium income while the growth rate of RPLI stood at 60 per cent in
terms of premium income in 2009-10 over the previous year.
Source : http://www.business-standard.com/ & sa post
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