Where the Customer Journey Breaks: A Branch-Level Study of Onboarding, Digital Adoption and Fraud Risk at India Post Payments Bank

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) is a payments bank. It can take deposits and offer payment services, but it cannot lend. So its income depends on how many customers it brings in, how many of them actually use its services, and how well it earns fees and commissions from that use. Most studies on IPPB look at financial inclusion in general. Very few follow the full chain from onboarding to usage to revenue at branch level. This paper tries to fill that gap. The study is based on an on-the-job training at IPPB, Nagpur, from 15 May to 15 July 2026. It uses three sources: direct work and observation during the internship, branch-level operational data given for the project, and public sector information. Four themes were studied: onboarding and KYC, digital and assisted banking adoption, revenue avenues, and operational and fraud challenges. Key results from the branch data: 5,47,134 accounts were opened and about 4.2 lakh customers were active, an active customer ratio of 76.76%. Mobile banking activation was 78%. AePS transactions (14,356) were about eight times doorstep transactions (1,789). 7,634 insurance policies were sold, which is only about 1.82% of active customers. The paper concludes that IPPB’s strength is access and onboarding. The weak points come after onboarding: inactive accounts, AePS-related fraud risk, and low insurance cross-selling. The paper suggests practical steps: risk-based account monitoring, stronger AePS fraud awareness, and simpler insurance communication.