"The idea is to have a branch in every district and make 3 lakh postmen come alive in payment bank function," he said. Also 1,000 ATMs of India Post will be transferred to IPPB, Singh added. Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said that IPPB plans to have 650 branches across the country by September 2017. Terming IPPB as a mechanism for financial inclusion and a milestone, Sinha said the payments bank -- the third one to get a permit after Airtel and Paytm and the first one promoted by the government -- will not just conduct business but also serve people. India Post Payments Bank (IIPB): 5 Interesting Points To Know

In 2015, RBI had granted 'in-principle' approval to 11 entities, including the Department of Posts, to set up payments banks and proposed to give such licences 'on tap' basis in future. However, a consortium of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries promoter Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor Financial Services gave up their plans to roll out payments bank. Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Ltd (Chola) also decided to withdraw its plans to set up a payments bank. Tech Mahindra was the third to drop plans to roll out payments bank. Out of the remaining eight companies in the fray, Airtel launched its commercial operation across India with an investment of Rs 3,000 crore and is offering interest rate of 7.25 per cent on deposits, free money transfer from Airtel to Airtel numbers within Airtel Bank, money transfer to any bank account in the country. Paytm, promoted by Vijay Shekhar Sharma and backed by Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba, plans to roll out payments bank with an initial investment of about Rs 400 crore. Other players are -- Aditya Birla Nuvo, Fino PayTech, National Securities Depository, Reliance Industries and Vodafonem-pesa.

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