India Post Payments Bank announces the rollout of Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services.

The AEPS services will give a strong boost in expanding access to financial services for millions of unbanked and underbanked customers.

India Post Payments Bank announced Monday that it has rolled out Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) Services. With the launch of AePS services, India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has now become the single largest platform in the country for providing interoperable banking services to customers of 'ANY BANK' by leveraging the last mile unprecedented reach of the Postal network, stated a press release issued by the bank.

Benefit for unbanked and underbanked customers

According to the press release, with AEPS services any one with a bank account linked to Aadhaar can carry out basic banking services such as cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of the bank they hold their account with.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, union minister for Communications, Electronics & IT and Law & Justice at the launch said, "As the biggest Financial Inclusion initiative in the world, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana brought millions into the economic mainstream. There are over 34 crore Jan Dhan accounts out of which 22 crore account holders are in rural India. With IPPB's AePS Services, we now have the ability to provide Interoperable Doorstep banking services to customers of ANY BANK including the 34 crore Jan Dhan account holders, by leveraging the unprecedented last mile reach of IPPB."

Dilip Asbe, Managing Director & CEO, National Payments Corporation of India said, “In August 2019, transaction value of AePS stood at Rs. 10,034.12 crore.”

How to avail the services

To avail these services, a customer with an Aadhaar linked account can simply authenticate his/her identity with fingerprint scan & Aadhaar authentication to complete a transaction. AEPS services are bank-agnostic and are driven by an inexpensive infrastructure enabling low-cost delivery of doorstep banking services to every section of the society without discrimination.

A.N. Nanda, Secretary, Department of Posts said, "It has been our belief that financial and banking services have a transformational impact on the lives of people and communities. For a significant majority of these people, the Postman and Grameen Dak Sevak (GDS) are the most important channel for delivery of various financial services at the last mile, making India Post Payments Bank the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for them.

He said, "The launch of AEPS by India Post Payments Bank enhances the last mile interoperable banking infrastructure by 2.5 times. The network brings doorstep banking access to millions of underbanked customers and gives a fresh impetus to inclusion of customers facing accessibility challenges in the traditional banking ecosystem." (Source: The Economic Times)