Some useful information - Core Banking in Postal Department

What is Core Banking Project? India Post has a vision to be one of the leaders in providing banking and money remittance services to the citizens of the country with a focus on the rural population

How it is different from the existing Sanchay Post? Sanchay Post is a LAN (Local Area Network) based application. CBS on the other hand is a centralized application with browser based interface. There is no need for servers at the post office level for running CBS. CBS will have the following features which are not available in Sanchay Post: real-time 24x7 processing capability, centralized database, availability of alternate channels, capture of KYC (Know Your Customer) details, adequate audit & inspection features

What are the alternate service channels planned along with  CBS ? ATM Banking Internet Banking Phone Banking (IVR)/ Banking through call centre Mobile Banking SMS Banking - tracking and alerts

What is Rural ICT project? How is this integrated with core banking? The Rural ICT solution will computerise the rural Post Offices and provide integrated and affordable electronic services at the Branch post office level. In the Rural ICT project, the vendor will be responsible for development of core application platform; development of MGNREGS application and expansion of already existing electronic Money Order (eMO) application for RICT Hardware Devices; development of a central MGNREGS database; Integration with overall India Post 2012 solution architecture and other core applications such as Mail Operations, Core Banking Solution, Postal Life Insurance and solution deployment of the complete Rural ICT solution to approximately 1.30 lakh branch post offices

What are the objectives of CBS project? To increase the number of customers from existing 20 crore to 35 crore by 2012 To provide multiple delivery channels like internet, mobile banking, ATMs, thereby bringing access to financial services to the doorsteps of the customers To enable faster money remittances and fund transfers and increase volumes to capture a 50% market share by 2014 To become the one stop solution for financial inclusion & microfinance initiatives of government, public/private sector banks

Can Post Office customer transfer money to other bank account; say SBI? Yes, the same can be done. CBS will have interface with NEFT- National Electronic Fund Transfer System run by RBI which will facilitate transfer of money from POSB accounts to other bank accounts

Does the project have any linkage with Project Arrow? Yes. Project Arrow has linkage with CBS project. Project Arrow monitors data entry and signature scan activities which are part of pre implementation activities of the CBS project.

What are Circle Processing centres? Circle Processing Centres (CPCs) which would act as centralized processing units for a circle and handle some of the non customer interfacing tasks centrally. Each circle will have a Circle Processing Centre

What is double entry accounting system? Will CBS have double entry accounting system? Yes, CBS will have double entry accounting system. A double-entry bookkeeping system is a set of rules for recording financial information in a financial accounting system in which every transaction or event changes at least two different nominal ledger accounts. The above said accounting logic will be inbuilt in the CBS software.

What are the linkages between CBS and other projects? The entire scope of India Post 2012 project is organized under 8 RFPs, in a multi-tower model with vertically integrated towers, in order to expedite the rollout of priority solutions and allow specialized and full service providers to participate in the procurement process. The vendors selected would need to work together to ensure smoothness in building and rolling out the solutions. The key linkages between CBS vendor and other vendors in the India Post 2012 project are network, data centre facility, helpdesk, call centre etc.

Whether all the schemes have to be migrated to CBS? Yes, all existing schemes will be migrated to CBS. This is needed due to the fact that firstly Sanchay Post will be phased out and secondly due to interface with the new POS ( which will replace Meghdoot software) integrating all the applications of the post office.

What is the role of SI as far as Sanchay Post is concerned? SI shall maintain, operate and support this application during the period of its availability. SI shall do the necessary enhancement of the Sanchay Post software during the time of ownership as may be required for successful running in the identified Post Offices.

Who will run the call centre for banking? How the staff will resolve issues while implementing CBS? There will be an internal helpdesk to resolve the issues faced by the internal staff of DoP in relation to the products and solution/ applications implemented as part of India Post 2012 Project. A call centre will be available for the DoP customers. Both (internal helpdesk and call center) will be managed by the core system integrator as part of its scope of work.

What are the facilities the customer can get through core banking? The customer will get the benefit of anytime, anywhere banking by access to multiple alternate channels like ATM, internet banking, phone banking, mobile banking etc.

What are the online facilities planned under internet banking for CBS? The key online facilities that will be provided to the CBS internet banking users are: opening of TD/NSC/KVP/RD, change of contact details, cheque book request, apply for and report loss of debit/ATM card, view mini statement of past few transactions, bill payments etc.

What are the interfaces planned for CBS? Internal and external interfaces are planned for CBS. Internal interfaces will be developed with insurance module, mail system, ATM switch, Sanchay Post, Enterprise Content Management System etc. External interfaces will be developed with EFT/NEFT, ECS, RTGS, Cheque Truncation System, National Financial Switch, payment services provider etc.