Banks are committed to seed savings bank accounts with the accountholder’s Aadhaar number, based on the accountholder’s consent.

Aadhaar seeding will help accountholders to do fund transfer through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) at Banking Correspondent points. Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app also supports pay to Aadhaar number mode. Further, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) can be made to eligible seeded accounts.

As per reports received from public sector banks, Regional Rural Banks and 13 private sector banks, there are 110.03 crore individual, operative savings bank accounts (including Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts) with Aadhaar number seeded in 52.95 crore accounts.

The overreaching aim and objective of seeding is enabling delivery of basic financial services.

This was stated by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Aadhaar linkage enables payment access and DBT to consenting bank accounts via AEPS and BHIM. Banks commit to seed savings bank accounts with the accountholder's Aadhaar number only with the accountholder's consent to enable use of the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), BHIM app pay-to-Aadhaar functionality, and to permit Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into eligible seeded accounts, the seeding aimed at enabling delivery of basic financial services.