Private Banks Should Play Pro-Active Role in Financial Inclusion: RBI


Mumbai: The Reserve Bank today called upon the private sector lenders to play a proactive role in promoting financial inclusion as state-owned banks cannot do the job by themselves. "Public sector banks will not bring financial inclusion in this country (alone), it will be brought by private sector banks," RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty said, while speaking at the Financial Times-YES Bank banking summit here. Commending the work done by private sector banks on financial inclusion in the country, he said the lead taken by private sector banks towards financial inclusion would be visible in the next one to two years. Chakrabarty also called bankers to view financial inclusion as a profitable proposition than merely looking at it from the compliance point of view. As per the financial inclusion agenda of the government, the banks will have opportunity to open branches in 72,000 villages with a population of 2,000 by March, 2012. This will take banking to over 90 million customers. On the role played by MFIs (Micro-Finance Institutions), Chakrabarty said they would never be able to promote financial inclusion, as they only disburse credit and do not help generate savings. Chakrabarty further said technology would be the biggest enabler in achieving the financial inclusion by drastically bringing down costs.
Source: PTI