The government is reportedly toying with the idea of forming a collaboration between India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) and messaging behemoth WhatsApp for a range of services including banking.
Plus, a partnership with India Post will be looked into in the future as the government is poised to improve the world’s largest postal distribution system with a slew of new-age offerings, ET reported citing people with knowledge of the matter.
A collaboration between the payments banking arm IPPB and the Meta-owned messaging platform will provide customers services such as checking account balance and the option to request the opening of a new bank account on the messaging platform.
Worth mentioning here is that the IPPB was launched in 2018 to leverage the reach of about 1.55 lakh post offices in the country to offer banking and financial services to rural areas.
“A pilot project will be run over the next 60 days with services of IPPB such as balance enquiry, request for a new account, changing pin and passwords being tested out,” sources told the financial daily.
A few selected customers will also be allowed to request cash withdrawal and deposit, Aadhaar-to-Aadhaar transfer, update permanent account numer (PAN) and Aadhaar number and manage account beneficiaries, the daily mentioned, citing sources.
Further, a possible partnership with India Post for other services such as booking courier packages, opening of salary, savings and current accounts as well as disbursal of salaries at the doorstep following requests made through WhatsApp, will also be considered.
However, a senior government official highlighting the challenges in offering such services in rural areas mentioned that a key point was to ensure “there is no fraudulent withdrawal by anyone other than the rightful beneficiary of the account”.
Currently, banking customers of India Post, as well as of IPPB, access the internet and mobile banking facilities through the website and the mobile app.
“The addition of WhatsApp will provide another avenue, which is easier for everyone to use,” the official mentioned.
