India Post Payments Bank invites applications for new MD&CEO

India Post Payment Bank

State-owned India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has started the search for its next Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO).

"Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB) invites applications from qualified candidates for the post of Managing Direct and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) in India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) on a full-time basis," an official notification released by FSIB on May 17, 2023.

As per the notification, the candidate should be a graduate and with a minimum of 15 years of experience in financial services i.e. retail banking, digital banking or payments, out of which at least 1 year should have been as a CXO (Chief Experience Officer).

The last date for submitting the completed online application for the MD and CEO post is June 14, 2023, by 5:00 pm.

At present, J Venkatramu is serving as the MD and CEO of the New Delhi-based payment bank since October 29, 2020, with a tenure of three years. Venkatramu’s term is ending in October, 2023.

Earlier in February 2023, in an exclusive conversation with Moneycontrol, Venkataramu had said that IPPB plans to approach the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with a request to get itself converted to a universal bank.

IPPB, a division of the vast postal service, has so far not made any formal application with the central bank on the subject yet.

"We are planning to approach RBI to make India Post Payments Bank a universal bank with a special focus on small credit products to solve financial inclusion though we have not filed any written application to RBI so far," Venkataramu told Moneycontrol.

Established in 2018, IPPB has 60 million customer accounts, of which 20 percent are inactive. The payments bank is leveraging India Post’s network of 158,000 outlets.

"We are looking to break even by the end of this financial year with gross revenue crossing Rs 500 crore," said Venkatramu. In May 2022, RBI received 11 applications to set up a bank under the Guidelines for ‘on tap’ licensing of universal banks and small finance banks.

The last set of universal bank licenses was given by RBI in 2013 to Bandhan Bank and infra lender IDFC. IDFC later became IDFC First Bank.

Recently, Airtel and India Post Payments Bank announced the launch of WhatsApp Banking Services for IPPB customers, enabling them to access banking services on their mobile phone.