The branch network of India Post Payments Bank is expected to become operational by May 2018. The postal department has made an investment of Rs1450 crore for this purpose. Stating that this is an ambitious plan of the department, the secretary of the department Ananta Narayan Nanda said by April, all the systems will be ready, and the department will start rolling out the branches between May and September. He added that more than 1.55 lakh post office branches will operate as access points and 650 payments bank branches will provide them back-end support. He added that initially, Rs 800 crore fund was approved for the payments bank but now due to some cost escalation, the department will launch branches with an investment of Rs 1450 crore. This investment includes those in hardware, software, training and staff cost. The India Post Payments Bank will be the third payments bank to have full-fledged operations after Airtel Payments Bank and Paytm.