Kerala - Kattappana   

Smart card launched in Kattappana block panchayat

KATTAPPANA: Aimed at ensuring transparency in banking and inculcating the habit of saving among the illiterate poor, the Union Bank of India, the lead bank in the district, has introduced the bio-metric smart card in the Kattappana block panchayat. The card is sensitive to the holder’s thump impression.

V. Ramanathan, district manager of the bank, told The Hindu on Thursday that by March-end nearly 20,000 cards would be distributed in various grama panchayats under the block.

The machine developed for the smart card is handy and less difficult to handle compared to the ATM.

Mr. Ramanathan said that it was for the first time in the State that a bank was distributing the bio-metric cards. The technology was provided by the Financial Information Network and Operation Ltd (FINO), Mumbai, which is functioning as the bank’s business correspondent. A card holder can do the banking transactions using the services of the Port Devise Machine, without travelling to the bank. The machine needs only the thump impression to withdraw, deposit or pay the amount on a loan to the bank.

“Though, aimed at the illiterate, it will also be useful to all lower or middle-class customers,” said Mr. Ramanathan. The bio-metric smart card is being introduced following a directive from the Reserve Bank of India for financial inclusion of the poor sections, who are the beneficiaries of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) and similar projects by the State governments.

The card functions as an electronic passbook and will have all the features of a passbook. Customers will receive the receipts immediately after the transaction. Any small amount can be deposited to the bank using the card.

District Collector Ashok Kumar Singh said that the major benefit of card was that middlemen could be avoided and the wages could be distributed directly to the beneficiaries of the government programmes.

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