Amidst the lockdown, PayPoint ensures basic banking services at essential neighborhood shops

Amidst the lockdown, PayPoint ensures basic banking services at essential neighborhood shops

Further to the directives of the Indian Finance Minister to keep banking services operational, PayPoint micro-ATMs installed at its retail partners help citizens withdraw cash, transfer money, and deposit cash at no extra charges. The facility can be availed with other essential services such as grocery, medicine and food.

 As the country comes to a standstill due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, PayPoint India puts the best effort to keep all its Customer Service Points (CSPs) operational so that the essential Banking Services may be delivered to banks’ customers, as per the directives of the Finance Minister - Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. It may be recalled that even in the complete nationwide lockdown to avoid the spread of the pandemic, Banking Services are required by the Central Government to be operational so that people may withdraw money to purchase essential items of need.

For this purpose, the government and banks have mandated that the Business Correspondents (BCs) of banks, which are present in the remotest of villages and towns of the country, must remain operational. PayPoint India, a BCs network delivering last-mile financial services, has more than 42,000 retail outlets across the nation, including in the farthest and difficult to reach hamlets in the North-east. The company’s retail partners, where micro-ATMs are installed, offer banking services such as withdrawal, transfer money, and deposit cash at no extra charges while availing other essential services such as grocery, medicine and food.

Mr. Ketan Doshi, Managing Director of Pay Point India, said, “it is very important that the Customer Service Points of Business Correspondents remain operational and their cash requirements are met by the Banks to enable them to serve the people in these times of acute crisis. Especially when the Government of India has announced such a huge relief package worth INR 1,70,000 crore for the people, it is of paramount importance that all the Customer Service Points remain functional so that people may withdraw the money being transferred by central and state governments in their accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer.”

"Having said this, I would also like to put forth the point that every PayPoint outlet abides by the government's mandated safety protocols and appropriate hygiene," he added.

However, it is being reported that at the ground level, the Customer Service Points are not being allowed to function in some districts despite very clear guidelines issued by the government. This matter has already been escalated to the government agencies and it is expected that the situation will improve very soon.