Post offices to implement core banking by June

Residents of Chandigarh have a reason to rejoice as two ATMs are expected to be installed in the city,with one in Sector 17 and the other in Sector 19,after the successful implementation of CBS. The city comes under the second phase of the project,along with 21 other head post offices in Punjab.

Indian Post already has a large network reach,where people from the rural sector still find it convenient to keep their accounts in the post offices. After the installation of ATMs,around 59 lakh account holders from Chandigarh and Punjab will be able to access their accounts with the swipe of a card in the ATMs.

The banks had completed the process of implementation of core banking by 2008. “SBI had around 10,000 branches when it implemented core banking. It is a daunting challenge for us,since we have around 1,55,00 post offices in the country,25,000 of which are the sub-post offices in the rural areas which do not have computer facilities,” shared one of the officials.

He added that there will not be any new recruitments for the program and the present employees will be trained for the change.

“Core banking is the need of the hour as Indian Posts have also been declared partners in money transfers by the government. The places for installing ATMs have been earmarked which will be near the rural areas since our maximum consumer base is located there,” said KL Khanna,Chief Postmaster General,Chandigarh. “With CBS,National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) will also be streamlined,” he added.