City’s first post office bank to open on June 23

People who invest their savings in post office will now be able to get the benefits of a bank in the same post office.

In a major step towards customer convenience, a post office will now work similar to a bank and people having different accounts, including saving account, recurring account, time deposit, monthly-income account scheme, senior citizen’s savings schemes, public provident fund and national savings certificates, etc will get benefits of a professional bank.

All this has been possible due to Core Banking Solutions (CBS) of India Post, under which, now the post offices will be running their own banks. The service has already been started in Chandigarh. However, under the scheme, the bank at Ludhiana Post Office will be operational from June 23.

Head postmaster Swaraj Kaur said, “The Ludhiana head post office will start its bank operations from June 23 as all existing accounts will be shifted to the bank by then.” Sighting the benefits of the facility, she said, “It will function like any other bank and will provide all benefits that a bank provides.”

Though many people still believe that the money invested in post offices is much safer, they also face various problems as post offices work only locally. For example, for every deposit or credit, a person has to visit the local post office but if one needs the money urgently and is out of station, he might not be able to get it.

Under the CBS, all banks of the post offices would be interconnected to each other all over India. The head office of CBS is in Mysore, Bangalore. By interconnecting of all banks of the post offices, people would be able to deposit or withdraw their money from anywhere in India.

Under this scheme, an ATM facility would also be provided at the Ludhiana head post office bank.

Kaur said, “All 45 sub-offices-many of which are located in far-flung areas where the main bank branches don’t exist- under the head post office Ludhiana will be connected to the banking system within a year. She added that to get rid of any confusion, all account holders have been asked to verify their balance in post office accounts before June 23.