Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

23-August-2011 17:56 IST

Extending the Reach of Banking Facilities to Villages

As reported by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there are 28,921 rural centers, where Scheduled Commercial Banks are functioning as on 31st March, 2011. RBI defines a rural population group as those centres which have population of less than 10,000.

In order to extend the reach of banking to the rural hinterland, to begin with, banks were advised in 2010-11 to provide appropriate banking facilities to habitations having a population in excess of 2000 (as per 2001 census) by March, 2012, using the Business Correspondent and other models, with appropriate technology back up. Approximately 73,000 such habitations across the country have been identified and allocated to Public Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Private Sector Banks and Cooperative Banks for extending banking services by March, 2012. As per reports received from banks, 29,569 villages have been covered as on 31.03.2011.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance Shri Namo Narain Meena in a written reply to a Question in Rajya Sabha today.

DSM/SS/PM

Financial inclusion mandate: banks to extend services to designated rural habitations using business correspondents and technology. Banks are directed to extend basic banking facilities to rural habitations above a population threshold by a set deadline using the Business Correspondent model and other outreach arrangements with technological support. Identified habitations were allocated among public, regional rural, private and cooperative banks under an allocation framework to operationalise coverage targets, and progress is tracked through Reserve Bank rural centre statistics and periodic bank reports.