Government has said that there are many companies who have approached the Department of Posts for collaboration with India Post Payments Bank. Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha said that while the Department is in various stages of discussions with them, decision on formal partnerships will be taken after carefully evaluating the entire value proposition that they propose for the common man. The India Post Payments Bank had launched its two branches in Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Ranchi (Jharkhand) on 30/01/2017 with basic products and banking services in partnership with Punjab National Bank.
Shri Sinha also said that the Payments Banks are different from regular Banks in the following fundamental ways as per RBI guidelines for Licensing of Payments Banks:
- Payment Banks are not allowed to undertake lending activities directly. It can accept demand deposits only that is savings and current accounts and will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of Rs. 100,000(Rupees one lakh only) per individual customer.
- Payment Banks cannot accept Non-Resident Indian (NRI) deposits.
- The Payment Banks cannot set up subsidiaries to undertake non banonbankingcial services activities.
