March 31, 2018 is the last date to link Aadhaar card or the 12-digit Unique Identity Number with various government schemes and financial services. These range from PAN card, bank accounts and mobile SIMs to mutual fund investments and small savings schemes such as PPF (Public Provident Fund) and KVP (Kisan Vikas Patra). The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) – the issuer of the 12-digit Aadhaar number or Unique Identity Number (UID) as well as Aadhaar card – has in a communication dated January 14, 2018 sought to address some frequently asked questions (FAQs).

1. The UIDAI has all my data including biometrics, bank account, PAN etc. Will it be used to track my activities?

Absolutely false. UIDAI database has only the following information –

(a) Your name, address, DOB, gender, date of birth

(b) Ten finger prints, two IRIS scans, facial photograph

(c) Mobile number and email ID

Rest assured, UIDAI does not have your information about family, caste, religion, education, bank accounts, shares, mutual funds, financial and property details, health records etc and will never have these information in its database.

In fact, Section 32(3) of the Aadhaar Act 2016 specifically prohibits UIDAI from controlling, collecting, keeping or maintaining any information about the purpose of authentication either by itself or through any entity.

2. When I link my bank accounts, shares, mutual funds and mobile phones with Aadhaar, will the UIDAI not get this information?

Absolutely not. When you give Aadhaar number to your banks, mutual fund companies, mobile phone companies, they only send Aadhaar number, your biometrics (given at the time authentication) and your name etc to UIDAI for verification for your identity. They do not send your bank account or its details to UIDAI.

So far as UIDAI is concerned, it responds to such verification requests by replying either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. In few cases, if the verification answer is ‘Yes’, your basic KYC details (name, address, photo etc.) available with UIDAI are sent to the service provider.

3. Why am I being asked to link all my bank accounts with Aadhaar?

For your own security, it is necessary to verify identity of all bank account holders and link them with Aadhaar to weed out the accounts being operated by fraudsters, money-launderers, criminals etc. When every bank account is verified and linked with Aadhaar and then If anyone fraudulently withdraws money from your account, through Aadhaar such fraudster can easily be located and punished.

Therefore, by linking your bank accounts with Aadhaar, your accounts becomes more secure and not the other way around.

4. Do NRIs need Aadhaar for banking, mobile, PAN and other services?

Aadhaar is only for residents of India. NRIs are not eligible to get Aadhaar. The respective service providers like banks and mobile companies have laid down NRI-specific exemptions. NRIs should simply tell the banks and other service providers such as credit card companies etc that they are not required to provide Aadhaar numbers by virtue of being non-resident Indians.

5. Why am I being asked to verify and link my mobile numbers with Aadhaar?

For your own security and security of our country, it is necessary to verify identity of all mobile subscribers and link them with Aadhaar to weed out mobile numbers being operated by fraudsters, money-launderers, criminals etc. It has been found that most criminals and terrorists get SIM cards issued in the name of fictitious and even real people without their knowledge and use them for committing frauds and crime. When every mobile number is verified and linked with Aadhaar, then fraudsters, criminals, and terrorists using mobiles can be easily identified and punished in accordance with law.

6. Can the mobile company store my biometrics taken at the time of SIM verification and use them for other purposes later?

No one, including mobile phone companies, can store or use your biometrics taken at the time of Aadhaar verification and linking. The biometrics are encrypted as soon as Aadhaar holder places his finger on fingerprint sensor and this encrypted data is sent to UIDAI for verification.

Regulation 17(1)(a) of the Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations 2016, strictly prohibits any requesting entity which includes mobile phone companies, banks etc from storing, sharing or publishing the finger-prints for any reason whatsoever and neither shall it retain any copy of such fingerprints. Any violation of this provision is a punishable offence under the Aadhaar Act 2016.

7. Some agencies are not accepting e-Aadhaar. They insist on original Aadhaar. Why?

e-Aadhaar (downloaded Aadhaar) from UIDAI website is as legally valid as original Aadhaar issued by UIDAI . Both should be acceptable by all Agencies. In fact downloaded e-Aadhaar has updated address etc. of the Aadhaar holders and therefore should be preferable. If anyone refuses to accept downloaded e-Aadhaar, the Aadhaar holder may lodge complaints with higher authorities of those departments/agencies.

The Indian banking sector is finally opening up with new banks being established from this year.India post has started India Post Payment Bank and has also issued a massive recruitment notification for officer posts.Since freshers are also eligible for these positions, and IPPB being a new bank,many aspirants have doubts related to eligibility,job profile etc..

For the candidates to better understand India post payment bank recruitment 2016,here is a compilation of answers for some of your most common doubts.

As per the notification, the online registration closes on October 25.So if you are eligible,go ahead & submit your applications immediately instead of waiting for the last minute.

Q: India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) – Is it a govt job or private?

A: India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) is 100% owned by Government of India through Department of Posts.So it is completely a govt bank job.

Q: I will turn 20 years in January 2017.Am I eligible for Assistant Manager (Territory- scale I) post? 

A: No.The age limit fixed for recruitment of this position is 20 - 30 yrs, as on September 1, 2016.

Only those who are born not between 02.09.1986 & 01.09.1996 are eligible to apply for scale I positions.

Q: What is the age requirement for Manager (scale II) & Senior Manager (scale III)?

A: Manager (scale II): 23 to 35 years (birth date must be within 02.09.1981 & 01.09.1993

Senior Manager (scale III): 26 to 35 years (born between 02.09.1981 & 01.09.1990)

Q: I belong to OBC/ SC/ ST category.Are there any relaxations in age?

A: Like in any govt recruitments, the maximum age is extended by 3 yrs for OBC, 5 yrs for SC, ST, 10 yrs for persons with disability (PWD)

Q: I have only 45% in degree.Am I eligible?

A: You are eligible as pass in degree is enough to apply.The percentage of marks doesn't matter for india post payment bank recruitment 2016.

Q: I am in final semester/ year of college & will complete degree only in 2017.

A: Candidates who have completed their degree by Sep 1, 2016 are only eligible for these jobs.

Therefore those who are doing their final semester/ year or waiting for results are NOT permitted to apply.

Q: Is experience required for Assistant Manager (scale I) cadre job?

A: No.Freshers are also eligible for this post

Q: What are the experience conditions for scale II & III positions?

A: There are 652 scale II & 408 scale III vacancies in India post payment bank recruitment.So each post has separate condition listed below:

Manager (scale II): 3 yrs experience of working in scale I in any public sector bank or equivalent scale in a private bank or similar level in any other organization.

Senior Manager (scale III): Minimum 6 yrs experience of working in scale II in any govt bank or equivalent scale in a private bank or similar level in any other organization.

Salary, Bond & Job Location Doubts

Q: What is the salary of officers in India post payment bank?

A: The payscale for employees in IPPB varies with scale.

Assistant Manager (scale I): Rs.65,000 /month Manager (scale II): Rs.83,000 /month

Senior Manager (scale III): Rs.1,06,000 /month

The above salary is inclusive of allowances & benefits.So your take home salary could be around 30% lesser than the CTC given above.

Q: Is there any service bond in india post payment bank?

A: There is NO agreement or service bond in IPPB

Q: Can I get posting in my home state? Are there transfers?

A: The IPPB recruitment is not conducted state-wise.So you may be posted to any branch of the bank located across India.

It’s almost a year since its first two “pilot” branches at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Ranchi (Jharkhand) were inaugurated by finance minister Arun Jaitley and minister of state for communications Manoj Sinha through video conferencing. Where are these banks, insurance firms and asset management companies? How has IPPB been doing? IPPB has a customer base of a few thousands and its deposit kitty is less than Rs1 crore.

The objective of this column is not to write an obituary of this initiative—something I had done not so long ago for Bharatiya Mahila Bank Ltd, a misadventure of the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance-led government. Of the 11 entities that had got the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) in-principle approval to set up payments banks so far, only four—including IPPB—have gone live and three have opted out even as another four are busy sorting out regulatory, technical and business issues. There seems to be something inherently wrong with the business model itself. On top of that, IPPB, being government-owned, has unique challenges.

Going by the RBI guidelines for payments banks, there is a need for transactions and savings accounts for the underserved in the population. Also, remittances have both macroeconomic benefits for the region receiving them as well as microeconomic benefits for the recipients. Higher transaction costs of making remittances shrink these benefits. So, the primary objective of setting up payments banks is to “further financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and payments/remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low-income households, small businesses, other unorganized sector entities and other users, by enabling high volume-low value transactions in deposits and payments/remittance services in a secured technology-driven environment.”

Most of these services are currently provided by India’s mainstream banks, albeit with a degree of reluctance as these activities are seen to be loss-making. The challenge is how to make profits out of these services. IPPB started operations with a borrowed information technology (IT) platform from Punjab National Bank (PNB). How will a bank with very different objectives move ahead on the IT platform of a conventional universal bank? Can banking by surrogacy succeed in the payments space? A large number of bankers coming on board from PNB on deputation hasn’t helped the cause either.

Most regulatory constraints that universal commercial banks face are applicable to the payment banks as well even though their product line is thin and so are the revenue streams. IPPB, like all other payment banks (and small finance banks), is required to maintain 15% minimum capital adequacy ratio and also the cash reserve ratio, or the mandatory deposits with RBI on which it does not earn any interest (currently, it is 4% of deposits). On top of this, a payments bank needs to invest 100% of its demand deposits (it cannot take fixed deposits and recurring deposits) in government securities and deposits of scheduled commercial banks in the ratio of 3:1.

So, how will a payments bank make money? It cannot make money from deposits as the return typically is less than the cost of deposits; it can make money from payments transactions only if it has a robust, secured and comprehensive technology platform that enables clients and service providers to come together seamlessly and transact at an extremely competitive cost. The regulatory capital of Rs100 crore seems to be too little to create such infrastructure. RBI’s operational guidelines and regulatory controls give one the feeling that it wants to create banking fair price shops in the guise of payment banks.

IPPB currently offers savings bank deposits with 5.50% interest and a debit card to its customers in the two state capitals but there aren’t too many takers. Clearly, the postal bureaucrats in charge of the project do not have the nuanced understanding and skill to put up such a massive life-changing and technology-driven bank for the masses.

After using the PNB technology platform at the initial stage, IPPB is now looking for its own platform. DXC Technology (a former Hewlett-Packard Co. enterprise) will create the IT backbone. I wonder why only two bidders (DXC Technology and FIS) responded to the request for proposal, or RFP, issued by the DoP, and that, too, after cancelling the first RFP? For any large, complex project, an RFP is considered to be the heart and soul of the procurement. There were thousands of queries by the initial bidders but only one entity, Polaris Financial Technology Ltd, made a bid in the first round which got cancelled. Do the technology providers lack confidence in the viability of the business proposition?

It might be worthwhile to take a look as to what IPPB can offer which India Post cannot. India Post has been providing deposit services to a large number of small customers across the country; it also has a limited remittance service. So, IPPB needs to provide its customers with a robust and efficient payments facility without much complexity of transaction formalities, and at a cheap price.

Would this product line generate adequate revenue to have a healthy enough profitability to attract investors, or would it perennially depend on budgetary support?

It is not yet clear as to what is the business model being adopted by IPPB and whether the IT system being implemented would be comprehensive and adaptive enough to meet all the objectives.

Minister of state for communication Sinha, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha recently, said IPPB expects to roll out 650 branches in April.

That’s good news.

But will they be sufficient to ramp up the operations? And, what will these branches do?

My understanding is that these bank branches (housed in India Post office outlets) will be the control office or back office while India Post, with its 150,000 branches, will be the corporate business correspondent of IPPB. In that sense, IPPB will be a faceless bank without any direct contact with its customers.

There are many questions to ask:

— Why has there been undue delay in starting any meaningful operations?

— Is IPPB’s operational dependence on the DoP too heavy, making it a weak protégé of the government department?

— Is the level of operational and administrative autonomy being enjoyed by IPPB adequate to frame its own strategy?

— Who is driving the project—the CEO of IPPB or executives of India Post?

(The CEO joined in October 2017, eight months after the project took off. None can miss the overwhelming footprint of the DoP executives who do not have either accountability or the acumen in defining the business strategy.)

— Is the operational architecture capable of infusing the much-required agility and efficiency of connecting India’s 650,000 villages and delivering banking services to millions at a very cheap cost?

What is worrying is that IPPB’s dependence on DoP is understood to be continuing even after the bank will be fully operational. For example, the connectivity of the bank for all its operations (proposed 650 offices, other access points, ATMs and hand-held machines to be used for transactions) will be through the existing DoP network. One can only hope that the technology shortcomings of DoP do not get replicated in the bank.

Time will tell whether IPPB will succeed, but the confusion surrounding the payments bank arm of India Post is pretty high at the moment. If the government aims to achieve deeper banking inclusion, it would be wise to let the board of IPPB and its top management decide on its strategy. Piggy-backing DoP will create an inefficient animal always looking for the indulgent patronage of its parent—far removed from India’s digital banking dream.

Finally, it looks like the feasibility of IPPB’s business is leaning heavily on being the gateway for all direct benefit transfers, earning a commission from the government. Is that a sufficient justification for a bank to exist? Instead of setting up IPPB, the government could have gone for a common back office service provider for all its transactions.

Courtesy:-http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/ahSPRC01zjTfib9zNQPTGL/Long-live-India-Post-Payments-Bank.html

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has announced plans to equip service postmen with smartphones to offer door-to-door banking services. The move is aimed at opening up to 3,250 customer access points across 650 districts, with a special focus on the country’s under-banked rural areas.

The announcement comes at a time when the India Post-owned payments bank is gearing up to launch nationwide operations in March.

As stated by Anant Narayan Nanda, Secretary – Department of Posts and Chairman of IPPB, the payments bank will be relying on 155K technologically-equipped post offices – including 129K in rural areas – to service its customers.

Having procured a special dispensation from the RBI, the India Post Payments Bank will also be able to link savings bank accounts of existing post office customers, allowing them to access both as well as perform transactions through the same interface.

Currently, India Post boasts around 170 Mn savings bank accounts. Nanda added, “By December 2018, 200K postmen and gramin dak sewaks carrying mobile phones will offer doorstep banking to customers predominantly in rural areas. Eventually, this number will increase to 350K.”

During the recent media interaction, Nanda further stated that the bank will start pan-India operations in March with 3,250 access points, of which five will be present in each of the 650 districts.

India Post originally opened its payments bank on a pilot basis in January 2017, with two branches in Ranchi, Jharkhand and Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

As part of its nationwide launch, the bank is preparing to hire 3,000 people, of whom roughly half will be on deputation from India Post and state-operated banks. Additionally, it is also currently training postmen to provide basic banking facilities like opening bank accounts and performing transactions via smartphones.

In rural areas where customers are not well versed in digital technologies, the postmen will teach them to perform simple banking activities on their own. The goal is to enable customers to access a range of banking services – such as net banking, Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronics Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) – using just the India Post Payments Bank app.

Through the app, customers will also be able to pay bills, buy insurance-related products as well as invest in mutual funds.

For their services, the postmen and the gramin dak sevaks will be given monetary incentives for both assisted and self-service transactions. Given that around 70% to 80% of the country’s postmen use smartphones and are even active on social media, Nanda claimed that they would be able to use the payments bank’s app with ease.

It was in February 2016 that the Public Investment Board (PIB) approved India Post’s $116.7 Mn (INR 800 Cr) proposal for setting up a payments bank. According to the government’s proposed plan, each post office in the country will offer post bank services.

In January 2017, India Post received a final license from the Central Bank in order to kickstart its payment bank operations. Later in February of the same year, it was reportedly granted $74 Mn (INR 500 Cr) in the latest Union Budget 2017-18. The allocation was made keeping in mind India Post’s aim to open 650 new branches for the payments bank.

As per media reports, the payments bank under India Post offers an interest rate of 4.5 % on deposits up to $392.6 (INR 25,000); 5 % on deposits of $392.6-$785.2 (INR 25,000-INR 50,000); and 5.5 % on $785.2-$1,570.7 (INR 50,000-INR 1 Lakh).

Besides India Post, other payments banks that are currently operational in India include Airtel Payments Bank, Paytm Payments bank, and Fino Payments Bank. Airtel, which beat Paytm to open the first payments bank, began operations in 29 states in November 2016. It currently offers the highest interest rate of 7.25 % p.a. on deposits in savings accounts.

Paytm debuted its Payments bank in May 2017 and is the first bank to offer cashback on deposits. The bank is also planning to open 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in a year. It also recently reported losses of $4.6 Mn. Fino Payments Bank, on the other hand, went live with 410 branches and over 25,000 touch-points on day one itself in the July 2017.

India Post currently accepts payments of over $7.2 Bn (INR 46,000 Cr) in cash every year, claimed Nanda. By enabling customers to transact via the payments bank app, the government-run post office is likely looking to handle a substantial chunk of this amount digitally, thus eliminating inefficiencies and redundancies.

Courtesy:- https://inc42.com/buzz/india-post-payments-bank-postmen-banking/

At India Post Payments Bank, we believe that a nation can grow only when its people prosper together. With financial inclusion, trustworthy banking advice and reliable services at the heart of our philosophy, we envision a future full of promises and possibilities. Even a little saving can go a long way if channelize correctly. That’s why, at IPPB, we aim to ensure equal financial access to every Indian, regardless of who they are and where they live. Here is a glimpse of what IPPB offers.

Banking Services for Everybody​​
Domestic Remittance Services​​
Direct benefit Transfer​​
Doorstep Banking​​

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Banking Services for Everybody:

IPPB offers 3 distinct accounts, tailored to suit the requirements of people everywhere.

Regular Account – Safal

While the Safal Account is packed with features, the Saral Account is aimed at people with limited banking experience. ​

Click for more details​

The following services are available across the different accounts.

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Domestic Remittance Services:

IPPB will provide an inexpensive and secure medium to transfer funds via its domestic remittance offering. All customers of IPPB would be eligible to avail a host of different modes of domestic remittance subject to the stipulated constraints – NEFT, IMPS, AEPS, UPI and *99#

Click for more details​

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Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT):

DBT program aims to transfer subsidies directly to the people through their bank accounts, which will in turn reduce leakages, delays and other similar challenges.

Funds from the disbursing agency are automatically credited into the beneficiary accounts through NACH/APBS instead of cash disbursal. IPPB will provide cash out of the subsidies at the customer's doorstep by combining this service with Doorstep Banking.

Doorstep Banking:

We look forward to extending our relationship with banking at your doorstep. Doorstep banking allows a customer for a nominal fee to request and avail banking and related services at their door. The services currently offered are as follows:​

With “Aapka bank, aapke dwaar”, what you see is what you get.

(a) Cash withdrawal upto maximum Rs. 50,000/- allowed only to account holder by self-cheque. Charges is Rs. 10/- per transaction (Auto Debit).

(b) Cash withdrawal upto maximum Rs. 10,000/- allowed to 3rd party holder by cheque. Charges is Rs. 10/- per transaction (Auto Debit).