At a time when public sector banks and regional rural banks are seeing a surge in the number of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) accounts and balances in them, private sector banks haven’t been able to keep pace with them.

After the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes on November 8, private sector banks added a total of 2.41 lakh PMJDY accounts. In fact, the number of accounts came down by 69,094 in rural branches of private sector banks. In urban branches, however, the number went up by 3.10 lakh.

Much of the growth in accounts took place in IndusInd Bank. It added more than 2.80 lakh PMJDY accounts from November 9-23. The number of accounts came down by 59,083 in Jammu and Kashmir Bank.

While balances in PMJDY accounts of public sector banks and regional rural banks witnessed a growth of ₹20,264.21 crore and ₹5,876.34 crore, respectively, during the fortnight, private banks saw a growth of only ₹1,057.56 crore.

However, the balances in the PMJDY accounts of five private banks doubled during the period. IndusInd Bank’s balance in PMJDY accounts rose 326.43 per cent during November 9-23.

Of the 13 private banks for which data is available, only in three banks the share of zero-balance accounts in their PMJDY accounts was below the 30 per cent level. For the others, it remained above that level.

Nearly half of Kotak Mahindra Bank’s PMJDY accounts remained zero-balance.

Public sector banks

The number of PMJDY accounts increased by 6.03 lakh in urban branches and 2.26 lakh in rural branches in public sector banks (PSBs) from November 9-23.

The total number of PMJDY accounts increased from 7.20 crore to 7.25 crore in State Bank of India (SBI). This bank added 4.2 lakh more PMJDY accounts during the period. Bank of Baroda added 2.22 lakh, and Bank of India 76,785 accounts after November 9.

Of the 28 public sector banks, six witnessed a reduction in the number of PMJDY accounts during the fortnight.

Canara Bank saw a reduction of 57,741 accounts, followed by Bank of Maharashtra (29,896, Dena Bank (6,453), Andhra Bank (2,017), Indian Overseas Bank (575), and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (227). The overall balance in PMJDY accounts of PSBs increased from ₹36,403.84 crore as on November 9 to ₹56,668 crore as on November 23.

The fortnight witnessed more than 90 per cent jump in the balances in Andhra Bank (98.18 per cent) and Dena Bank (93 per cent).

The zero-balance deposits remained below 8 per cent range in Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Vijaya Bank. Nearly one-third of the PMJDY accounts have remained zero-balance in Bank of Maharashtra, SBI and State Bank of Hyderabad.

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