The Hindu Business Line : `No short cut to financial inclusion'

`Financial inclusion' is an issue laden with a legacy baggage dating back to 5,000 years and presents us with complexities that calls for a Herculean effort to get sorted out, said Dr K. C. Chakrabarty, CMD, Indian Bank.

Addressing a special session on `Inclusive growth: Inter-agency cooperation and coordination' at Bancon 2006 here on Saturday, Mr Chakrabarty said that a whole range of agencies from banking and insurance service providers to the regulator would have to act in consort to get the financial inclusion drive up and going. This was not an easy task, he reminded fellow CMDs and delegates participating in the session. While seeking to tie up varied agencies, care should be taken to keep a watch for the weakest link in the chain.

Delivering his address, Mr Asish Saha, Director, National Institute for Banking Management, Pune, emphasised the need to identify the agency that can provide the most sustainable access to financial services. A financial inclusion model that works in a country may fail to click in another. It has to be flexible and adaptive to the national situation.

Strategy for financial inclusion calls for a change in the mental attitude as well as the ability to understand the depth of the problem.

According to Mr S. K. Banerji, Managing Director, Saraswat Cooperative Bank Ltd, social inclusion must precede financial inclusion. He also highlighted the need for propagating financial literacy.

Mr M.D. Mallya, CMD, Bank of Maharashtra, said banks should shed the temptation to crunch numbers merely to pat themselves on the back. Agencies galore have to coordinate and cooperate before financial inclusion could be taken to its logical conclusion.