India Post Payments Bank Rolls Out Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services
The government on Monday announced the rollout of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) Services by India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). With the launch of AePS services, the India Post Payments Bank has now become the largest platform in the country for providing interoperable banking services to the customers of any bank, it said in a press release. AePS is a financial inclusion-focused payments system aimed at enabling bank customers to make digital transactions through an Aadhaar-based authentication process. The move will provide a boost to government's efforts in expanding access to financial services for underbanked customers, the release noted.
"With IPPB's AePS Services, we now have the ability to provide Interoperable Doorstep banking services to customers of any bank including the 34 crore Jan Dhan account holders, by leveraging the unprecedented last mile reach of IPPB," said Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister for communications, electronics & IT.
With AePS services, a person with a bank account linked to Aadhaar can avail basic banking services such as cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of the bank they hold their account with.
"IPPB's services are now available across more than 136,000 Post Offices and delivered by over 195,000 postmen and Grameen Dak Sevaks (GDS). The ability of the postmen and GDS to reach every village on an almost daily basis has brought down the distance to access banking services to '0 kms', truly capturing the essence of Aapka Bank, Aapke Dwaar," said Suresh Sethi, managing director & CEO, India Post Payments Bank.
The government had last year in September launched IPPB with an aim to take banking to citizens through the vast network of post offices, postmen and grameen dak sewaks. The payments bank, which is operated by Department of Posts, offers two types of zero balance savings accounts at present: regular and basic.
