View financial inclusion as a business model: RBI to banks

RBI has said that banks need to perceive financial inclusion, or the process of bringing all the people under the financial system, as a profitable business model and not an obligation. "Banks need to perceive financial inclusion as a profitable business model and not as an obligation. This would be possible only if banks strive towards offering more and more credit products to customers captured as part of the financial inclusion plan and lower transaction cost by leveraging technology," Deputy Governor Anand Sinha has said at the launch of the Financial Inclusion programme of Cosmos Bank at Pune earlier this month. The transcript of Sinha's speech was made available at the RBI's website. "The current policy of inclusive growth with financial stability cannot be achieved without ensuring universal financial inclusion," Sinha said. He further said: "Though the efforts for universalization of financial inclusion are already underway, there are a number of challenges in this endeavour going forward with about 4,80,000 villages yet to be provided with banking services." 

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