Minister for Municipal Administration S.P. Velumani (fourth right) handing over QR card to a customer of India Post Payments Bank in Coimbatore on Saturday. | Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan more-in India Post plans to roll out the service of its Payments Bank in all post offices across the western region by December this year. The bank’s services were made available from Saturday in nine Head Post Offices and 36 Sub Post Offices and Branch Post Offices in the region. Mariamma Thomas, Postmaster General of Western Region, Tamil Nadu, said the bank’s services would be launched in all the 3,294 post offices in the region in four phases. The bank was basically to strengthen financial inclusion. Potential customers need to download the app and express their willingness to open an account. The post man would visit them and open the account. They need to provide only their mobile number and Aadhaar number. There would be no service charges or minimum balance. “The bank is mainly for minimum transactions,” she said. All customers would get QR cards (quick response cards) that could be used to deposit or withdraw cash. This helped them transact with just their mobile phone. There would be a dedicated counter too at all the post offices to help customers open accounts. So far, 10,000 accounts had been opened in the western region, she added. Minister SP Velumani took part in a function held here to launch the Coimbatore branch of the bank and distributed QR cards to select customers. Erode Staff Reporter adds: The Payments Bank service was launched at the Head Post Office on Gandhi Road here on Saturday. MLAs K.V. Ramalingam (Erode West), K.S. Thennarasu (Erode East) and V.P. Sivasubramani (Modakurichi) launched the service in the presence of Surekh Reghunathen, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Erode Division. The service was also launched in Erode East Sub Post Office, Cauvery Railway Station SPO, Kokkarayanpettai SPO and Pappampalayam SPO. Senior officials said that the branch would offer various services, including savings and current accounts, remittances and money transfers, direct benefit transfer, bill and utility payments and enterprise and merchant payments for the customers.

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