India Post Payments Bank launches ‘Fincluvation’

• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a 100% government owned entity under the Department of Posts (DoP) announced the launch of Fincluvation: a joint initiative to collaborate with the Fintech Startup community to co-create and innovate solutions for financial inclusion.

About India Post Payments Bank

Established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication with 100% equity owned by the Government of India.

• It has been set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India.
• The fundamental mandate of IPPB is to remove barriers for the unbanked and under-banked and reach the last mile leveraging a network comprising 160,000 post offices (145,000 in rural areas) and 400,000 postal employees.
• IPPB’s reach and its operating model is built on the key pillars of India Stack - enabling Paperless, Cashless and Presence-less banking in a simple and secure manner at the customers' doorstep.
• IPPB delivers simple and affordable banking solutions through intuitive interfaces available in 13 languages.
• IPPB is committed to provide a fillip to a cashless economy and contribute to the vision of Digital India.

About Fincluvation

It is a step in this direction, an Industry first initiative to create a powerful platform to mobilize the start-up community towards building meaningful financial products aimed at financial inclusion.

• Combination of IPPB’s Banking stack, DoP’s trustworthy doorstep service network and the techno-functional acumen of start-ups can deliver unmatched value to the citizens of the country.
• Fincluvation will be a permanent platform of IPPB to co-create inclusive financial solutions with participating start-ups.
• IPPB and DoP collectively serve close to 430 million customers through neighborhood post office and at their doorsteps.
• It will constitute more than 400,000 trusted and capable Post Office employees and Gramin Dak Sevaks - making it one of the largest and trusted postal networks in the world.

Role of Fincluvation

• Fincluvation invites startups to Participate, Ideate, Develop and Market intuitive and tailored products and services that can be taken to the customers.
• Startups are encouraged to develop solutions aligned with any of the following tracks-
  • Creditization - Develop Innovative & Inclusive credit products aligned with the use cases of target customers and take them to their doorsteps through the Postal network.
  • Digitization - Bring convenience through convergence of traditional services with Digital Payment Technologies such as making the traditional Money Order service as Interoperable Banking service.
  • Any Market-led solutions that can help solve any other problem relevant to IPPB and/or DoP in serving the target customers.

Opening of New sets of Business Opportunity

Intersection of technology with financial services coupled with traditional distribution networks is opening up new set of business opportunities.

• Conventional model of technology procurement led product creation by banks often lacks value in user experience leaving huge gap between customer expectations and service delivery.
• Traditional technology firms fail to meet these expectations with a deficit of ownership in product creation.
• With Fincluvation, it is possible to crowd-in the best minds to develop technology-led financial solutions for Bharat.

Benefits of Fincluvation

Fincluvation will allow the start-ups to work with IPPB and DoP experts to develop solutions and conduct pilots using the postal network and IPPB’s technology stack.

• Successful pilots can then mature into long-term partnerships.
• It will create a platform that can provide an opportunity for start-ups to work together with understanding the needs of the underserved customers to deliver products with a positive impact and more importantly in a cost effective manner.

Conclusion

India will prosper when every citizen will have equal opportunity to become financially secure and empowered.

By following the motto of IPPB as - Every customer is important; every transaction is significant, and every deposit is valuable, India will progress towards inclusive growth and equity in resource distribution.

Exam Track

Prelims Takeaway

• India Post Payments Bank
• Fincluvation