POs to enter core banking by March '10

Post Office would not more limit its banking system to old and traditional technology and would adopt Core Banking System, on pattern of other commercial banks by the end of current financial year.

"All branches of Post Office Banks will be connected through national computer server for which data scanning and signatures entry was nearing completion", P R Kumar, chief postmaster general, Punjab & Union Territory (Chandigarh) told reporters in Jalandhar on Monday.

At present, there were 150 lakh (1.5 billion) branches with the deposits of Rs 5.60 lakh crore (Rs 5.6 trillion) of deposits, Kumar said claiming that no other government organisation could match such a huge customer network.

"The deposits in post office banks are not being used for any commercial purposes like extending loans to people and all the deposits were being utilised by the government of India for welfare schemes only", Kumar said while revealing the differentiation between the commercial banks and post offices.

Apart from banking sector, postal department would emphasise on insurance sector especially in rural areas, Kumar said adding that within one year it has been targeted that over 200,000 policies would be issued in Punjab only to reach the number of two crore policies at national level by March 2010.