India Post Payments Bank Incorporated

The India Post Payments Bank Limited has received the Certificate of Incorporation from the Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs yesterday under the Companies Act 2013. This would be the first PSU under the Department of Posts. This has happened in the wake of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address, raising the expectations of the people from the soon to be set up India Post Payments Bank. With this move the Department of Posts has cleared an important milestone on this journey.

With the incorporation, the Board of the India Post Payments Bank Limited is likely to be constituted soon. The incorporation of the IPPB Ltd is a significant step forward as this also paves the way for the bank to begin hiring of banking professionals to set up the bank and begin its operations in 2017. The Department of Posts is expected to complete the roll out of its branches all over the country by September 2017. This could be the fastest roll out for a bank anywhere in the world.

The aspiration for the India Post Payments Bank is to become the most accessible bank in the world riding on state of the art banking and payments technology. Coupled with the physical presence across 1.55 lakh post offices and the reach of “The Dakiya”, the India Post Payments Bank aims to become a powerful and effective vehicle of real financial inclusion in the country. It is poised to create a national payments architecture riding on a modern payments platform and ubiquitous information and communication technologies that can be accessed by all users and service providers like never before. The stakeholders of the India Post Payments Bank within the Government and outside are looking at this new entity as a catalyst to social and financial inclusion. 

Source:-PIB(Release ID :149001) 

KYC norms may be the major impediment for payment banks

Just a few months before the new crop of payment banks start their operations, their chiefs are a worried lot. 

The banking regulator's ask in terms of meeting the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms has put them at par with traditional banks, and firms are concerned that the preference for "paper-based" KYC will be a cost-intensive and time-consuming exercise — and therefore a major impediment to the growth of the new age banks. 

Paytm payment bank's CEO Shinjini Kumar told ET that the industry is very "aggrieved" with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asking all entities to adhere to the centralised KYC system instead of just relying on the Aadhaar-based eKYC for payment banks. "We are grappling with that problem right now and we are talking to different people. We are hoping that there will be some understanding. Anyway our accounts are capped at Rs 1,00,000. There should be no reason why eKYC should not be the only way to do KYC. It is also digital and more authentic." 

Chiefs of Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank, Sudhakar Ramasubramanian and Vodafone M-pesa payments bank Suresh Sethi also aired similar concerns to ET. They argue that payment banks do not have the same manpower to collect paper-based KYC like traditional banks and given that they are capped at a balance Rs 1,00,000, they do not share the same amount of risk. While RBI had earlier accepted eKYC as a means for customer authentication at the time of opening accounts, the new norms mandate a common KYC across all financial services entities for which detailed KYC is required to be collected and uploaded as a paper form to a central KYC repository — Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India, or CERSAI. 

The idea is to streamline the KYC process and avoid duplication of KYC for customers at multiple agencies. But, for payment banks to be cast under the same net, it means that instead of just relying on the biometric based eKYC they will have to collect more details of their customers and upload them to the central registry. Sudhakar who is the CEO (designate), of Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank said that in the case of payment banks a phased approach towards KYC will be better received since the whole idea behind the payment banks is towards financial inclusion. 

"If we have too many restrictions for someone who keeps Rs 5,000 in the account, it could prevent many of the unbanked from experiencing the benefits of financial services. KYC norms can be applied in a layered manner as the customer's balance and transactions increase," he said.

Digital KYC will help ease the "entry barrier" for such people along with being a more authentic means of KYC than a physical KYC. "Currently, over 90% of all retail transactions are through cash in the country, if these transactions have to be converted into the electronic format, banking will have to be relived from some of these troubles," he added.

39th Biennial Conference of Punjab Circle held on 24.07.2016.

39th Biennial Circle Conference of All India Association of Inspetors and Asstt Supdt Posts, Punjab Circle under the chairmanship of Shri Vikas Sharma, President AIAIASP Punjab Circle was held on 24.07.2016 at GPO Building Chandigarh and following office bearers of the association were elected:

President : Sh Narinder Singh, ASP Faridkot Sub Division, Faridkot
Sr Vice President : Shri Vikas Sharma, ASP Ropar Sub Division, Chandigarh
Vice President : Shri Sunil Kumar, ASP Rajpura Sub Division, Patiala
Circle Secretary : Shri Balbir Singh, Manager, NSH Chandigarh
Asstt Circle Secy -1 : Shri Sandeep Kumar Shori, ASP Ludhiana City Division
Asstt Circle Secy-2 : Shri Ravi Kumar, ASP Batala Sub Division
Asstt Circle Secy-3 : Shri Shailendra Kumar, IP (PG) Circle Office Chandigarh
Organizing Secy-1 : Ms. Parveen ASP(HQ) Bathinda
Organizing Secy-2 : Shri Robin Kumar, IP Fazilka Sub Division
Organizing Secy-3 : Shri Sanjeev Sahotra, ASP (W) Patiala
Organizing Secy-4 : Shri Tejinder pal Singh Dhillon, ASP Jagraon Sub Division
Treasurer : Shri Gaurav Nagi, IP (MOD), Circle Office
Asstt Treasurer : Shri Alok Kumar, ASP, Punjab West Region, Chandigarh
Auditor : Shri Atam Kharbanda, ASP (Courts) Circle Office
Member : Shri Dinesh Sharma, ASP(Esstt) Circle Office.

Following members have donated generously on this occassion.

• Madam Shashi Chopra, Supdt CSD Ludhiana : 2100/-
• Shri Kuldeep K Chauhan, Supdt (HQ) Chandigarh : 1100/-
• Shri Gaurav Khatkar, IP (PMU) CO Chandigarh : 1100/-
• Shri Harpreet Singh, IRM LD-II Sub Dn Patiala : 500
• Shri Sunil, Sanjeev & Rashmi Patiala : 1400/-

Association wishes all the elected members good luck and thanks esteemed members who donated generously. Thanks.