IPPB rolls out Aadhaar-enabled payment services

The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has rolled out of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System Services (AePS). The announcement of roll out was made by Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad at the first anniversary celebrations of India Post Payments Bank in New Delhi.

About IPPB’s AePS

With the launch of AePS, the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has now become single largest platform in India for providing interoperable banking services to customers (of any bank) by leveraging last mile unprecedented reach of Indian Postal network.

IPPB’s AePS services

To avail these AePS of IPPB, customers can simply authenticate their identity with Aadhaar authentication and fingerprint scan to complete a transaction. Also, with AePS services, any person with a Aadhaar linked bank account can perform basic banking services like cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of bank they hold their account with.

By leveraging AePS customers can now access their accounts (with any bank) by simply using their fingerprint for balance enquiry right/cash withdrawal at their doorstep through Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS).

IPPB’s services are now available in over 136,000 Post Offices and delivered by over 195,000 Postmen and GDSs therefore, the ability of Postmen and GDS to reach every village on an almost daily basis has reduced the distance to access banking services to nearly ‘0 kms’.

The launch of AePS by IPPB enhances the last mile interoperable banking infrastructure by 2.5 times.

IPPB also delivers simple and affordable banking solutions through intuitive interfaces available in 13 different languages.

Significance:

The Aadhaar Enabled Payment System Services would give a strong boost to Centre’s efforts in expanding access to financial services for millions of unbanked and underbanked customers.

With this AePS, the Centre envisions to ride the 440 Central schemes on-boarded to Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) platform on IPPB platform too. Also, in order to work with government’s key mantra of ‘inclusive banking’, the Department of Posts should strive for banking the unbanked, funding the unfunded and securing the unsecured.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2019