What was termed as the biggest initiative of financial inclusion in the country by the Prime Minister at its launch, the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), a ‘Digital-First Bank’ built on the rails of wide physical distribution network of India Post under the Ministry of Communication, Government of India, had announced a major milestone since inception towards achieving its financial inclusion goals through digital banking. In January this year, IPPB announced that it has crossed the five-crore customer mark in three years of commencement of operations to become one of the fastest growing digital payments banks in the country.
Presenting the budget for the financial year 2022-23, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned that the government’s aim for this year will be to further expand the scope of digital banking and take it to every citizen and make it more inclusive. She further added that 75 digital banking units will be launched in 75 districts of the country.
As a result of the initiatives taken by the Government, there has been a paradigm shift in digital transactions in India, as there has been a growth of 88 per cent in volume of digital transactions during the last three years since 2018-19. 72 per cent of financial transactions of PSBs are now done through digital channels, with doubling of customers active on digital channels from 3.4 crore in FY2019-20 to 7.6 crore in FY2020-21, and the share of financial transactions undertaken through home and mobile channels has increased from 29 per cent in FY2018-19 to 76 per cent in FY2020-21.
