There is a good news for around 200 million post office
saving bank (POSB) account holders.
The Department of Posts (DOP) has launched a project to
provide account holders with ATM facility. Under the project, all post offices
throughout the country will be connected through an IT network. Besides, account holders will also be able to avail
Internet banking facilities.
“We
will connect the network of 1.55 lakh post offices that includes 1.2 lakh in
rural areas,” said Kavery Banerjee, member, technology, postal services board.
“Our central data centre is ready and vendors are developing customised banking
service solutions.”
POSB
operates small savings schemes on behalf of the ministry of finance and has
over 260 million account holders, out of which about 200 million are saving and
recurring deposit account holders. Total outstanding balance under all accounts
in the POSB stood at around Rs.3,96,664 crore as on March 2012.
At
present, an account holder has to go to a post office during office hours to
withdraw money. Moreover, there is no facility of electronic transfer of money
to a third-party account.
“Once
customers are provided with the ATM facility, they will be able to withdraw
money from any ATM, including that provided by banks,” said Banerjee.
Customers
will, however, have to wait for more than a year to avail the ATM facility.
POSB will start implementing core banking solution in limited number of post
offices by the end of this year. Next year, it will be implemented in large
number of post offices once the system is perfect.
For
rural post offices, the department will provide handheld devices that will enable
one to perform all banking operations.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, 06.04.2013
