Thaindian News

Mumbai, June 28 (IANS) Banks have opened over 75 million no-frills accounts so far, but most of them are not operational, raising questions over the government’s financial inclusion programmes.

“As of today, 75 million no frills accounts have opened but there are hardly any transactions in them,” Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor K.C. Chakrabarty said at a banking summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here.

In a bid to bring a large number of under-privileged people in the banking net, the RBI had directed banks to introduce no-frills accounts. Though individual banks have the right to design no-frills accounts, the basic characteristic is that it involves a zero or very little balance requirement with limited transaction facilities.

Chakrabarty urged commercial banks to work together to bring nearly 400 million citizens into the formal fold of the banking net.

“Banks need to work towards providing a full range of financial services and this would need a low cost, reliable, easy to use and secure technology backbone linking six lakh villages in the country in the next four to five years,” he said.

Chakrabarty also emphasised on the need for making banking paperless, chequeless and cashless.

“This is already happening globally. It is possible for us to leapfrog to achieve these objectives,” he added.