India Post Payments Bank opts for FSS payment stack
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has chosen Financial Software and Systems’ (FSS) Payments-in-a-Box solution as it targets rural households, SMEs and women in the country.
Bank turns to Payments-in-a-Box solution
The bank, which launched last month, says 800 million Indians have bank accounts, “creating a ready market of consumers eager to partake new products and services”.
Shri Suresh Sethi, MD and CEO India Post Payments Bank, comments: “FSS’ technology solutions are powering us towards achieving our objective to build a less cash ecosystem by enabling last mile digital payment services.”
Using FSS’ omni-channel acquiring solutions the bank explains that it is enabling micro-merchants to accept payments over any channel – online, UPI, QR codes, Aadhaar and IPPB accounts.
At the backend, FSS merchant management and merchant settlement solutions are used for onboarding fee calculation, reconciliation and settlement.
IPPB is set up under the Department of Post, Ministry of Communications, with 100% equity owned by Government of India.
Once fully launched, it will operate via the India Post network of 155,000 locations and have 650 offices providing back-end support.
IPPB says it will create and link 170 million postal savings bank (PSB) accounts, which will enable IPPB customers to transfer and receive money from any bank account.
The payment bank will be used by the government to distribute wages, subsidies, pensions etc.
IPPB was the third entity to receive a payments bank permit after Airtel and Paytm; and it will enable customers to pay for services such as phone top-ups, phone bills, electricity bills, or college fees.
The bank has received an investment of INR 14.5 billion ($225.2 million). Initially, the INR 8 billion ($124.3 million) fund was approved for IPPB, but “due to some cost escalation” the investment was nearly doubled.
For its technology, IPPB uses Infosys’ Finacle core banking system, FinTech Futures understands.
