The government also aims to ensure availability of a banking touch point from any habitat within 5 km. “We are working with banks to develop a broad structure that will improve access, simplify digital loan applications, and ensure quicker response for retail, MSME and agricultural loans,” said a government official aware of the plan.
The government wants banks to also find linkages and converge Jan Dhan accounts with schemes such as the Atal Pension Yojana, PM SVANidhi, Stand Up India scheme and the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana. “Based on Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar and mobile (JAM) framework, banks can look to offer customers new analytics-based offers and expand their coverage,” the official said, adding that banks are further expected to leverage their business correspondent channels for distribution of small credit and other financial products.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address at the ‘Creating Synergies for Seamless Credit Flow and Economic Growth’ conference, said banks need to adopt a partnership model and shed the culture of being an approver and the customer being an applicant.
“Banks at branch level can decide to approach at least 10 new youths or local micro, small and medium enterprises in their vicinity to help promote their enterprises,” he said, urging every bank branch have at least 100 clients with 100% digital transactions before August 15, 2022.
