‘Use Aadhaar-linked bank accounts for financial inclusion'

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) have urged various stakeholders to take steps such as promoting interoperable customer service networks and disburse Government payments through Aadhaar-linked bank accounts in order to accomplish financial inclusion.

In a report, CII and BCG have outlined a 15-point agenda for the stakeholders — market participants, the Regulator and the Government — to accomplish financial inclusion.

Suggestions also include bringing down human resource costs significantly, deploying efficient and cost-effective technology, building low-cost distribution network through partnerships, shifting from conventional float-based economics to pay-per-use economics and increasing collaboration across industry bodies.

Expressing concern that more than half of Indian households do not have access to products such as remittances, savings and credit, the CII-BCG report said that, historically, banks have attempted to build an efficient and low-cost distribution network to serve the marginal customers.

The introduction of Business Correspondents (BCs) has improved economics but it is still not sufficient, it said.

The report went on to add that the current level of financial inclusion at 47 per cent of the total households is an improvement over 35 per cent five years ago.

This analysis is based on a nation-wide survey covering more than 12,000 respondents who are customers of financial services.

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