A Curtain Raiser on Postal Savings Banks Forum
The Minister for
Communications & IT and Law and Justice World Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad will
inaugurate the Postal Savings Banks Forum in New Delhi tomorrow This year’s
forum is being organised by World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI)
jointly with the National Savings Organisation (Ministry of Finance) and the
Department of Posts.
The theme of this
year’s Postal Savings Banks Forum will be “The rising force of postal banking
in the retail banking market”.
The role of postal
operators in the world of retail banking is often overlooked. Post Offices
worldwide hold 1.6 billion savings and deposit accounts. This is second only to
commercial banks, which hold about 2.5 billion accounts. Thus, post offices are
critical to the pursuit of financial inclusion, which is recognised today as a
vital pre-requisite to socio-economic development.
The Universal Postal
Union estimates that several hundred million people, often without an account,
use the Post to make and receive basic payment transactions such as domestic
and international transfers, government payments and utility payments. Postal
operators, in all their activities, have always relied on a business model
based on large volumes and low costs. Combined with the universal service
obligation through which the State gives the mandate to the Post to serve the
entire population, these specific features make the Post a worthwhile ally in
the fight against financial exclusion.
Financial inclusion
brought about through the postal network is called postal financial inclusion.
India has about 1.55 lakh post offices, which is more than the combined branch
strength of commercial banks (about 1 lakh). The number of savings accounts held
in post offices in India is about 31 crore, which is more than that of any
commercial bank in the country. The postal network possesses excellent cash
management abilities and is trusted for its governance practices. Thus India
seems to have the right mix of ingredients to deliver concrete results in
postal financial inclusion. Hence the WSBI Postal Savings Bank Forum is of
considerable interest to the Banking Sector in India.
Source : PIB News
