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Mr K.C. Chakrabarty

Phalguna Jandhyala

Saharanpur (UP), Jan. 3 Punjab National Bank has launched its third pilot project on financial inclusion in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The bank had earlier launched similar projects in Rajasthan and Bihar.

“In the first nine months of the current financial year, the bank has opened three lakh no-frill accounts and in the next three months, another seven lakh such account holders would be added,” Mr K.C. Chakrabarty, Chairman and Managing Director, Punjab National Bank, said, after launching the project.

Under the financial inclusion project, the bank plans to utilise the services of business correspondents/facilitators for opening zero balance accounts of the rural poor.

“The customers would be issued biometric smart cards by these facilitators who can then make the transactions at their doorstep without having to go to a branch, which could be very far from their village. We plan to appoint around one lakh business correspondents in the next five years,” he said.

Apart from opening around 10 lakh accounts by March, the bank plans to cover 30,000 villages and around 75 million people under the financial inclusion project by 2010.

“The bank will be launching 10 such pilot projects in the seven States of the Indo Gangetic belt within this month. We are also looking at introducing new products such as health insurance, micro insurance, and pension for the rural population by using the bio-metric card,” Mr Chakrabarty said.

PNB is also looking at opening specialised branches and dedicating a couple of its existing branches in cities to bring the urban poor into the banking fold.

“We are also looking at offering a special plan for rickshaw pullers which should be out soon,” he said.

PNB also plans to raise around Rs 4,000 crore from bonds to meet its credit requirements. “The bank has space of Rs 4,000 crore and I have asked treasury whenever they feel appropriate, the bank would raise funds,” he said.

The bank had raised Rs 1,100 crore in the past few months and in December it raised Rs 800 crore through bonds.

More Stories on : Public Sector Banks | Punjab National Bank

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