India's Department of Posts, or India Post, plans to open 50branches of its payments bank by May 2017, The Economic Times reported July 22.

The bank plans to eventually open 650 branches across thecountry. The remaining 600 branches will start operations by September 2017,said an official of India Post.

The postal department obtained an in-principle approval toopen a payments bank from the Reserve Bank of India in August 2015. It willsubmit a final proposal to the RBI by February 2017 when it has the requiredmanagement and technology in place, S.K. Sinha, secretary of India Post, toldthe publication.