The Hindu : Karnataka News : SyndicateBank to bring 750 villages under financial inclusion

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Sunday, Jan 02, 2011
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Karnataka

Karnataka

SyndicateBank to bring 750 villages under financial inclusion

Staff Correspondent

‘The bank has opened 24 new branches in villages'

The bank has been allotted 317 villages in 29 districts of Karnataka for financial inclusion
Bank has new products such as FI-Recurring Deposit and FI-Kisan Credit Card

Kukkehalli (Udupi DT.): Executive Director of Syndicate Bank Ravi Chatterjee on Saturday said that SyndicateBank had plans to bring 750 villages under financial inclusion by March 31. He was speaking at an interaction programme with people from six villages under the financial inclusion project of the bank here.

As many as 930 people at Kukkehalli and Bairampalli villages had opened accounts under the financial inclusion project. Mr. Chatterjee distributed pass books and general credit cards to some beneficiaries on the occasion.

Mr. Chatterjee said the Union Government had set a target of covering 1,493 villages with a population of over 2,000 under financial inclusion by March 2012 to the bank.

The remaining 743 villages would be brought under financial inclusion by March 31, 2012. As part of the financial inclusion programme, the bank had opened 24 new branches in villages. The bank had also selected 723 business correspondents to cover the remaining 726 villages. Thus 750 villages would be covered by the bank either through branch or by business correspondents before March 2011.

Over 2.5 lakh financial inclusion savings bank (FI-SB) accounts had been opened in these villages so far. To bridge the credit gaps in the financial inclusion villages, where branches were opened, the bank had designed new products such as FI-Recurring Deposit, FI-Kisan Credit Card(KCC) and FI-General Credit Card. The bank had also provided an inbuilt overdraft facility for all the FI-SB accounts opened in financial inclusion villages.

The bank had also introduced a micro insurance product for financial inclusion customers with a life cover of Rs. 25,000 with a nominal premium of Rs. 30 covering both natural and accidental death up to the age of 65 years. The bank had been allotted 317 villages spread over 29 districts in Karnataka for financial inclusion. The bank had started a pilot project for financial inclusion by using Smart Card Technology in Bellary, Chitradurga, Yadgir and Gulbarga districts of the State. So far 15,902 smart cards had been issued in these districts.

Wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and social security pensions amounting to Rs. 88.82 lakh were disbursed through smart cards to the beneficiaries till November 2010, Mr. Chatterjee said.

General Manager Santosh Kamath, AGM Jyoti Shenai, Chief Manager Hemanth Bhide, and lead district manager Diwakar Bhat were present.

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