The Public Investment Board (PIB)
today discussed the Rs 800-crore proposal from the India Post for setting up a
payments bank and the final approval on the same is expected in the next
meeting.
"The proposal was discussed in
the meeting today but no decision has been taken yet. Another meeting is likely
in a week," a official in the postal department told PTI.After the board approval, the
proposal will be moved to the Cabinet within a month. The PIB under the Finance
Ministry vets investment proposals by state-run entities.The pilot for payments bank is set
to start from January 2017 and the full-fledged operations may start by
March.
The department is likely to finalise
the consultant for its payments bank by the end of this month. It had
shortlisted six consultants but only three of them submitted their bids.The consultant will advise the India
Post on setting up of payments bank.As many as 40 international
financial conglomerates including World Bank and Barclays have shown interest
to partner the postal department for setting up the bank.
The Reserve Bank has granted
payments bank permit to the department, which is already into providing
financial services and has 1.55 lakh branches across the country.As per the RBI guidelines, a
payments bank can offer limited services such as demand deposits and
remittances.They will not be allowed to
undertake lending activities and will initially be restricted to holding a
maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer.They will be allowed to issue ATM or
debit cards as other prepaid payment instruments but not credit cards.
