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State Bank of India plans to cover 12,421 unbanked villages by March 2012 under its Financial Inclusion Plan. Under the plan, the bank seeks to cover 5,357 unbanked villages up to March 2011. Up to January 31, it has covered 2,017 villages with population of 2,000 and above, the bank said in a statement. SBI has adopted a three pronged strategy — of opening as many new branches in rural and semi-urban areas as possible, setting up customer service points by appointing business correspondents/facilitators across the country and putting in place appropriate technology for providing access to banking facilities in far flung rural areas.
In order to reach remote villages, the bank has appointed 310 business correspondents and opened 28,610 customer service points. Besides this, 7,709 business facilitators have also been appointed to provide basic banking to the unbanked villages, the statement said. Since April 2010, SBI has opened 357 branches, out of which 207 were in rural and semi-urban areas. This takes the total share of branches located in rural and semi-urban areas to nearly 67 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, on Sunday inaugurated the 5,000th rural branch of SBI at Sagardighi Railway Station (West Bengal). He also inaugurated the bank's 13,333rd branch along with the 22,222nd ATM of the State Bank Group at Kandi Bus Stand (West Bengal).
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