India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has joined hands with LIC Housing Finance for selling housing finance products of the latter to its 4.5 crore customers, a statement said on Tuesday. Through its robust and extensive network of 650 branches and more than 136,000 banking access points, IPPB will make LIC Housing Finance Ltd's (LICHFL) home loan products accessible to its customers pan-India, the statement said.

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Under the strategic partnership, credit underwriting, processing, and disbursement for all home loans will be handled by LICHFL, while IPPB will source the loans. The alliance with LICHFL is part of IPPB's strategy to expand its range of products and services and to cater to the banking and financial needs of diverse customers, especially unbanked and underserved, across the country.

IPPB already distributes general and life insurance products through partnerships with insurance companies. Credit products are natural extension for the customers at the last mile, the statement said.

IPPB has an on-ground workforce of nearly 200,000 postal employees (postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks) equipped with micro ATMs and biometric devices for doorstep banking. This will play a significant role in offering LICHFL's housing loans. "Easy access to credit for buying a house is an important prerequisite towards achieving inclusive growth. The partnership with LICHFL is a significant tie-up in IPPB's journey to become one of the largest platforms for availing credit products by our customers for meeting various needs," J Venkatramu, MD & CEO, India Post Payments Bank said.

LIC Housing Finance MD & CEO Y Viswanatha Gowd said the strategic MoU with IPPB will help the company to further deepen the market penetration. "It will enable us to increase LICHFL's home loan product outreach in untapped geographies across the country. With an unmatchable presence of post offices, we see this strategic partnership as a significant step that will help our long-term business growth and improve our market share," he said.

LIC Housing Finance offers home loans starting from 6.66 percent for loans up to Rs 50 lakh for salaried individuals.