Context

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) launched ‘Fincluvation’– a joint initiative to collaborate with Fintech Startup community to co-create and innovate solutions for financial inclusion.

• The initative is part of the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence and ongoing ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotasav’. 

Background

• Fincluvation is an Industry based first initiative to create a powerful platform to mobilize the start-up community towards building meaningful financial products aimed at financial inclusion.
• Combination of IPPB’s banking stack (DoP’s trustworthy doorstep service network) and the techno-functional acumen of start-ups can deliver unmatched value to the citizens of the country.
• Fincluvation will be a permanent platform of IPPB to co-create inclusive financial solutions with participating start-ups.
• IPPB and DoP collectively serve close to 430 million customers through neighbourhood post office and at their doorsteps via more than 400,000 trusted and capable Post Office employees and Gramin Dak Sevaks - making it one of the largest and trusted postal networks in the world.
• Fincluvation invites startups to Participate, Ideate, Develop and Market intuitive and tailored products and services that can be taken to the customers.
• Startups are encouraged to develop solutions aligned with any of the following tracks-
• Creditization - Develop Innovative & Inclusive credit products aligned with the use cases of target customers and take them to their doorsteps through Postal network.
• Digitization - Bring convenience through convergence of traditional services with Digital Payment Technologies such as making the traditional Money Order service as Interoperable Banking service.
• Any Market-led solutions that can help solve any other problem relevant to IPPB and/or DoP in serving the target customers.

Indian Post Payments Bank

• India Post Payments Bank, abbreviated as IPPB, is a division of Indian Post which is under the ownership of the Department of Post, a department under Ministry of Communications of the Government of India.
• On 19 August 2015, the India Post received licence to run a payments bank from the Reserve Bank of India. On 17 August 2016, it was registered as a public limited government company for setting up a payments bank. IPPB is operating with the Department of Posts under Ministry of Communications.
• Opened in 2018, the bank had acquired about 4 crore customers by December 2020.
• PPB aims to utilize all of India's 155,015 post offices as access points and 3 lakh postal postmen and Grameen Dak Sewaks to provide doorstep banking services.

The bank also provides features like:

• Account: The bank offers savingsand current accounts up to a balance of ?2 Lakh.
• QR Card: Customers can use QR code paymentseliminating the need to remember account numbers, PINs and passwords.
• Unified Payments Interface
• Immediate Payment Service
• National Electronic Funds Transfer
• Real-time gross settlement
• Bharat BillPay
• Direct Benefit Transfer
• RuPayDebit Card
• AEPS (Adhaar Enabled Payment Service)

Benefits of the initiative

• It will allow the start-ups to work with IPPB and DoP experts to develop solutions and conduct pilots using the postal network and IPPB’s technology stack.
• Successful pilots can then mature into long-term partnerships.
• Through Fincluvation, we can create a platform that can provide an opportunity for start-ups to work together with us in understanding the needs of the underserved customers to deliver products with a positive impact and more importantly in a cost effective manner.
• Intersection of technology with financial services coupled with traditional distribution networks is opening up new set of business opportunities.
• Conventional model of technology procurement led product creation by banks often lacks value in user experience leaving huge gap between customer expectations and service delivery.

Need in India

• Traditional technology firms fail to meet the expectations and a deficit of ownership in product creation has been observed.
• Our citizens have varied and complex needs that need careful thought, empathetic product design, and rapid prototyping among users.
• With Fincluvation, we can crowd-in the best minds to develop technology-led financial solutions for India.
• Creditisation- helps in developing innovative and inclusive credit products aligned with the use cases of target customers and taking them to their doorsteps through the postal network.
• Digitisation- will bring convenience through the convergence of traditional services with digital payment technologies such as making the traditional money order service as interoperable banking service.

conclusion

The initiative will bring the convergence of traditional and technology together to make the post payments and banking easier for common man. India needs such an initiative for inclusive development and financial inclusion in the society. It will not only provide aid to people but will boost the economy as well. The process of ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by individuals and businesses including vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low-income groups at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by mainstream institutional players should be the only purpose for the government while making such policies.

Practice Questions Q1. With its wide presence, India Post Payments Bank can help democratize banking services. Critically examine. Q2. Elaborate on the role of microfinance institutions in financial inclusion and inclusive development