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The Regional Director Reserve Bank of India, Ms Suma Varma, has urged banks to extend more facilities to the rural population for making the concept of financial inclusion meaningful and fruitful.
Ms Varma said this while inaugurating ‘Sneha,' the Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centre (FLCC) established by Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Lead Bank for Thiruvananthapuram, here on Thursday.
NABARD VIEW
Delivering the keynote address, Mr K. C. Shashidhar, Chief General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), too, urged banks to reach out to the rural population to push financial inclusion.
Ms Indira Padmini, Convenor, District Consultative Committee for Banking Development and Chief Regional Manager, IOB, spoke on the occasion.
Among others who spoke were Mr K. Sudhir, General Manager, District Industries Centre; Mr K. S. Sasidharan, Principal Agricultural Officer; Ms J. Prasanna Kumari, Project Officer, Khadi and Village Industries Board; Ms Nalinakumar Ghosh, District Employment Officer; and Mr K. Sasikumar, Counsellor, FLCC.
FLCC NORMS
The FLCC will provide all details of banking facilities including loan products of banks, norms for lending and details of Government-sponsored schemes to the public, said Mr V. R. Muralidhar, Lead District Manager, IOB.
The broad objective of the FLCCs will be to provide free financial literacy/and education and credit counselling.
The services are rendered through face-to-face interaction as well as through other media such as e-mail, fax or mobile.
Debt counselling will be offered to individuals who are indebted to formal and/or informal financial sectors.
DEBT RESTRUCTURING
The FLCC will educate people with regard to various financial products and services available from the financial sector.
Apart from making people aware of advantages of being connected with the formal financial sector, the FLCC will also formulate debt structuring plans for borrowers in distress.
But FLCCs should not, however, act as investment advice centres/marketing centres for products of any particular bank/banks.
Counsellors
Counsellors should also refrain from marketing/providing advice with regard to investment in insurance policies, securities, or value/purchase/sale thereof.
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