Union Bank of India, the lead bank for Ernakulam district, has set up the first Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centre (FLCCC) in the district at Perumbavoor.

FLCCCs, recommended by the High Power Committee headed by Ms Usha Thorat on Lead Bank Scheme, are being set up in every district with the intention of providing financial counselling service through face-to-face interaction and through other available media like email, fax, mobile etc to educate people in rural and urban areas with regard to various financial products and services available from the formal financial sector.

The FLCCC at Perumbavoor is headed by a seasoned retired bank official and the public is free to approach the counsellor for the services offered at the centre.

Financial literacy

Financial literacy is given very high priority and the banking system has taken Financial Inclusion as a mission to be accomplished in a short period. At present, the country has nearly 59 per cent of the population without bank accounts. As the first phase of financial inclusion, all villages having a population in excess of 2,000 are targeted to have banking facilities. There are about 73,000 such villages in India. About 120 villages in Kerala are also do not have banks . The task of making banking service available either through a bank branch or through Business Correspondents is assigned to various banks. Most of them have appointed BCs and the process of issuance of Smart Cards to the new customers is ongoing.

Dr D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, recently visited the FLCCC at Perumbavoor. The Governor was accompanied by the Regional Director, RBI, Thiruvananthapuram, Ms Suma Varma. The Governor and RD were received by Mr M. V.Nair, CMD, Union Bank of India, and Mr Mayank Mehta, Regional Head, Union Bank of India, at the centre.

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