PSB Alliance to expand doorstep banking services to 6,800 centres

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PSB Alliance Pvt Ltd, a company set up by public sector banks, plans to ramp up the coverage of its doorstep banking (DSB) services to 6,800 centres across the country next year from the current 100.

The company, in which each of the 12 PSBs hold 8.33 per cent stake each, is creating its own IT platform to expand geographical coverage of DSB services, said Rajinder Mirakhur, MD & CEO, at an event to announce the appointment of Veefin Solutions Ltd for deploying and operating a unified digital platform for supply chain financing for PSBs.

Mirakhur expects PSB Alliance’s own IT platform to bring down the charges per DSB transaction to sub-₹50 level from the current ₹75 (excluding GST of ₹13.50).

The DSB services that PSB Alliance currently provides include financial services (cash deposit, with the minimum and maximum per transaction limit being ₹1,000 and ₹10,000, respectively); non-financial services (pick up of: cheques/ draft/pay order; IT/ GST challan; delivery of: account statement, non-personalised cheque book, draft, and pay order, term deposit receipt, TDS/Form 16 certificate issuance).

Funds transfer request

The company also provides DSB services such as funds transfer (with a maximum of 3 fund transfer requests and cumulative fund transfer limit of ₹25,000 per day), digital life certificate and nomination services.

Eric Anklesaria, Head of Strategy, PSB Alliance, said his company also plans to extend DSB services to HNIs, MSMEs and corporates. Currently, it offers these services only to retail customers.

Two national business correspondents (BCs) — BLS International Services Ltd and Integra Micro Systems Ltd – through their feet-on-street BCs will provide banking services at 6.800 centres, he added.

Supply chain financing

Raja Debnath, MD, Veefin Solutions, said his company’s digital platform will cover the entire gamut of supply chain financing (SCF) – purchase order financing, invoice discounting and dealer/distributor financing. Currently, the SCF market is about ₹1-lakh crore, but there is potential for it to grow manifold via the platform.

Initially, PSBs will be part of the platform. But, private sector banks and NBFCs too are expected to be onboarded.

Mirakhur observed that the unmet credit needs of MSMEs is estimated to be ₹20-25-lakh crore. “This project, brings all the PSBs together as a cohesive force, powered by their combined balance sheet strength and resources, to reduce the cost of sourcing customers and expand their opportunity to provide access to credit.”