The Bandhan Bank has been authorised by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to disburse pensions through e-PPOs on behalf of the Ministry of Railways, the public sector lender said on Wednesday.

The Bank will soon be integrating with the Ministry of Railways to operationalise the pension disbursement process.

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With this authorisation, Bandhan Bank will be able to disburse pensions to all employees of the Ministry of Railways who have retired from their service. This mandate also provides the Bank access to around 50,000 average Indian Railways retirees every year across all offices including 17 zonal railways and 8 production units of Indian Railways.

This will provide the existing as well as new customers of Bandhan Bank an opportunity to avail the world-class banking services, competitive interest rates along senior citizen privilege provided by the Bank. Pensioners also get access to more than 1640 branches and in class digital banking platform of the Bandhan Bank, it said in a statement.

Speaking on the development, Debraj Saha, head of government Business, at Bandhan Bank said, “Indian Railways is one of the prestigious and largest employers in the country. Authorization to disburse pensions to retired employees of railways provides an opportunity to serve them with the best products and services of the bank. It also allows retired employees to enjoy the most competitive rates provided by Bandhan Bank. This mandate by the Ministry of Finance, Railways, and RBI is a testament of the confidence and trust placed by the regulators and government in our bank.”

“This new authorisation allows us to play a pivotal role in the efficient disbursement of pensions to Indian Railway’s retirees, contributing to their financial well-being during their golden years. We are now better equipped to serve retirees in a more streamlined, secure, and prompt manner,” he added.

It is to be noted that the Indian Railways is the largest employer in the country with an employee strength of nearly 12 lakh.

For the second quarter of the financial year 2023-24, Bandhan Bank’s profit after tax (PAT) stood at Rs 721 crore compared to Rs 209 crore in Q2 FY23, registering a growth of 245 per cent YoY.

Lender’s total income rose 11.77 per cent to Rs 2,983 crore in the September 2023 quarter from Rs 2,669 crore in the year-ago period.