RBI in talks with banks for 3-year financial inclusion plan

Villages/hamlets with the least population even below 2,000 should also get banking facilities through banking facilitators.”

Hubli, July 27: The Reserve Bank of India is working on a three-year financial inclusion plan and is in talks with banks to see how to take this forward, said Ms Uma Shankar, Regional Director. Addressing the senior officials of Dharwad-based Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) during her maiden visit to the bank's headquarters, Ms Shankar said RBI wants to connect every Indian to the country's banking system. Even after 40 years of bank nationalisation, 60 per cent of the population donot have bank accounts and many people do not get loans. “If banks are connected to people, the progress automatically starts and banks will also get more business. In the future, we want banks to go everywhere with simple banking products with technology”, she pointed out. “In this connection, where bank branches cannot be opened, RBI has asked all banks to engage business correspondents (moving with biometric and other devices)to extend the banking services to all the adult citizens,” she added. The Regional Director asked the banks to develop their own business models to achieve financial inclusion completely.  While appreciating the efforts of Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank under financial inclusion, she said the regional rural banks could play a major role. “The RBI has clear vision and planning to bring the entire population within the banking fold by 2015. Villages/hamlets with the least population even below 2,000 should also get banking facilities through banking facilitators,” she said. “The Reserve Bank of India is celebrating its Platinum jubilee (75th year) and, on this occasion, has come out with several programmes to reach out to the common man,” Ms Shankar added. Mr Vasudev Kalakundri, General Manager KVGB, detailed the performance of the bank and its social involvement . Mr G Ramanathan, General Manager of Syndicate Bank and Convener, SLBC, Mr A.K.Bhattacharya, General Manager, RBI, also spoke and Mr Muralinath Gupta, General Manager of KVGB, proposed the vote of thanks.

HBL