Forty per cent population have bank accounts: NABARD

Only 40 per cent of the total population in the country have bank accounts and two per cent use credit cards, NABARD General Manager, BM Mukhopadhyay said on Wednesday.

Only 40 per cent of the total population in the country have bank accounts and two per cent use credit cards, NABARD General Manager, BM Mukhopadhyay said on Wednesday.

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This was so because of low banking literacy of the people, especially the poor, Mukhopadhyay told a financial outreach programme, organised by the RBI, at village Borum, near Itanagar.

To improve the situation, seven crore no-frill accounts with zero deposits were opened in the last three years, he said.

Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pudducherry had achieved a high percentage of banking literacy he said and expressed the hope that other states would catch up soon.

Mukhapadhaya said to make banking services accessible to the weaker groups, his bank had launched a special drive in Tirap, Changlang, Lohit, East Kameng and Dibang Valley districts in Arunachal Pradesh having abysmally low level of financial inclusion as per the Rangarajan committee report.

RBI executive director G Gopalkrishna said the poor people who had no collateral securities might obtain bank loans through self-help groups.

SBI Chief General Manager(NE) AK Deb said banks were constrained to sanction loans in the absense of official land records if land was forwarded as collateral security.