NEW DELHI: Your postman is set to become a banker with the Union Cabinet clearing a proposal to set up a postal bank. The move will see the postman provide a host of financial services at your doorstep, armed with an iPad and a smartphone.These will range from basic banking services like opening current or savings accounts (with a balance of up to Rs 1 lakh) to all kinds of payments —including social security payments, person-to-person remittances — and distribution of financial products such as insurance and mutual funds.“We have 1.54 lakh post offices, of which 1.39 lakh are rural post offices. Nearly 650 branches of postal payments bank will be established in the country, which will be linked to rural post offices,” telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) will have a corpus of Rs 800 crore and Prasad said it will be run by a CEO, while being professionally managed.There will be representatives from other government departments, including the department of posts, department of expenditure and department of economic services. There is a high level of excitement regarding the postal bank as private financial entities want to ride on its vast network to reach the length and breadth of the country.More than five dozen domestic and foreign banks, mutual funds and insurance companies are seeking to strike business opportunities with the postal department. Among those interested are domestic giants such as SBI, PNB, Union Bank and international entities like Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank and HSBC. Also in queue are HDFC Life, ICICI Lombard, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz, Kotak Life Insurance, Royal Sundaram and PNB Metlife. All post offices will be access points for IPPB. These post offices will be equipped with micro-ATMs for facilitating both cash and digital transactions. Nearly 1.7 lakh delivery postmen and Grameen Dak sevaks, savings agents and other postal franchisees will take banking to your doorsteps. It will have additional access points through about 5,000 ATMs, mobile and internet banking.