India Post's network value rocks! Over 60 financial giants woo for partnership

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: India Post's modernisation drive has already started paying it off in terms of upping its brand value.

A large number of players offering financial services like banking, mutual funds, money transfer, insurance etc, have showed keen inclination towards tying up with the India Post and leverage its vast spread out network of branches.

According to The Times of India report, there are nearly 1.5 lakh post offices across the country, 1.3 lakh in rural India

The paper reports that top global financial firms Barclays, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Western Union, Visa and domestic giants State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are among over five dozen companies that have queued up to partner with the payments bank arm of the country's postal department.

Even the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, has shown interest in picking up a stake in the business.

Those seeking an alliance with India Post for banking products and services include SBI, PNB, BoB, Union Bank, and IDBI Bank. Foreign aspirants include Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

The big players in insurance like HDFC Life, ICICI Lombard, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz, Kotak Life Insurance, Royal Sundaram and PNB Metlife are also in the queue.

Transfort and Western Union from the US have sought partnership in the business of money transfer. Our own telecom operator BNSL has also sown keen interest in a partnership for setting up the mobile wallet business.

The American financial services company Visa, who is already in partnership with most financial services players in the country, has also sought a partnership on ATM and point-of-sale transactions.

India Post had received the Reserve Bank of India nod to set up a payments bank in from the in August last year. Payments banks can accept deposits up to Rs 1 lakh but offer loans.