Domestic & global financial giants set to partner India Post

According to media reports, the country’s Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that top global financial & banking companies such as ICICI Bank, Barclays and Citigroup have indicated their willingness to partner India Post for its upcoming payments bank.

“You have only got the in-principle approval, and other aspects like appointing a consultant are on, but already 40 big financial services groups from the country and abroad have evinced interest in a tie-up with the Postal Department,” the Communications and IT Minister said, the PTI reported.

Prasad said that among the financial giants who have sent tie-up proposals include US banking major Citigroup, UK lender Barclays and India’s top private sector bank ICICI Bank.

The Postal Department aims to get India Post operational by March 2017, Prasad said, adding that some of the tie-up proposals entail in areas such as selling insurance, while some seek to provide government-to-citizen and company-to-citizen services.

The Reserve Bank in August 2015 gave an approval to set up payments banks, aimed at promoting financial inclusion through deepening the formal financial system by focusing on transactional banking, with India Post being the only state-run entity in a list of 11 entities that had received the go-ahead.