India Communications - Financial Services

India Communications Post Office Savings Bank:

Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) has a customer base of 14 crore account holders with annual deposits exceeding Rs 97,000 crore and a branch network of over 1,55,000 branches, which is double the size of all the banks in the country put together. There are eight financial products retailed from all post offices across the country. These are Savings Account, Recurring Deposit, Time Deposit, Monthly Income Schemes, Public Provident Fund, Kisan Vikas Patras, National Savings Certificate and Senior Citizens Savings Scheme. On 31 March 2004, the outstanding balance under all National Savings schemes in Post Offices stood at Rs 3,75,000 crore.

International Money Transfer Service:

This service, which is operated in association with a multi-national company, Western Union Financial Services International, provides customers the facility of receiving instantaneous remittances from more than 196 countries on real time basis. The service is currently available in more than 4,500 Post Offices.

Distribution of Mutual Funds and Securities:

Since February 2001, a growing network of nearly 220 post offices is distributing select Mutual Funds and Bonds (Principal/Prudential-ICICI/SBI/ICICI Capital/IDBI/RBI Bonds). The service, while extending the reach of the capital market of the country also provides the common man easy access to market based investment options.

Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT):

Launched in April 2001, this service leverages the VSAT network of the Department to facilitate end-to-end fund transfers by Banks (UTI/IDBI/HDFC) on behalf of the corporate sector as well as the Capital Market. To date, over Rs 1,400 crore have been transferred using EFT service.

Warrant Payment:

This scheme launched in January 2002, has facilitated the redemption of over 73,000 dividend warrants of UTI and Citibank worth more than Rs 100 crore through the postal network, establishing the ability of the Department to undertake the service, which is critical for the Capital Market of the country. The Post Office provides like no other institutions, a single-window facility to issue and pay out warrants across the country.

Postal Life Insurance:

Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced in 1884 as a welfare measure for postal employees. Over the years, it was extended to the employees of Central/State Government, Public Sector Undertakings, Universities, Government aided Institutes, Nationalised Banks, Financial Institutions and Grameen Dak Sewaks of the Postal Department.

India Communications