Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

11-May-2012 18:03 IST

Banks in Rural Areas

There are 93,659 branches of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) functioning in the country as on 31st March, 2012, out of which 34,671 branches are in rural areas and 24,133 are in semi-urban areas, which together constitute about 63% of the total bank branches.

During 2010-11, the SCBs opened 3,294 branches in rural/ semi-urban areas against 1,795 branches opened in urban/ Metropolitan areas of the country.

As per the extant Branch Authorization Policy of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), general permission has been granted to domestic SCBs (other than Regional Rural Banks) to open branches in centres with a population upto 99,999 and in all centres of the North-Eastern States and Sikkim, subject to reporting. In order to further expand the banking network, RBI has advised that while preparing their Annual Branch Expansion Plan, the Banks should allocate at least 25 percent of the branches proposed to be opened during a year in unbanked rural centres with population upto 9999.

Further, under the “Swabhimaan” financial inclusion campaign, banking facilities have been provided to over 74,000 villages having population over 2000.

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

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DSM/SS/SL

Branch expansion policy: banks must allocate a portion of new branches to unbanked rural centres under RBI guidance. Under the Branch Authorization Policy of the Reserve Bank of India, domestic scheduled commercial banks (other than Regional Rural Banks) may open branches in centres up to prescribed population limits and in all centres of the North Eastern States and Sikkim subject to reporting; banks are advised to allocate at least 25 percent of proposed annual branch openings to unbanked rural centres with population up to 9,999, while the Swabhimaan campaign has extended banking facilities to numerous villages above the program threshold.