Union Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said as many as 40 domestic and multinational financial giants, including Citigroup, Barclays and ICICI Bank, have sought to partner India Post for its upcoming payments bank. While addressing postal employees in Mumbai yesterday, Mr Prasad said that some of the requests are for selling insurance, while some seek to provide government-to-citizen and company-to-citizen services. He added that the department is aiming to get the bank operational by March 2017. The Minister further said that the Department's reach, spanning over 1.54 lakh points across the country, is its strength and the employees should leverage it for maximising revenue.