HDFC Bank launches financial literacy programme in Gujarat

Private sector lender HDFC Bank today formally launched a financial literacy programme here in Gandhinagar district as part of Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) advisory to tap non-organised banking sector in rural areas.

"Under RBI's advisory and guidance, and in a bid to organise the non-organised financial system in rural areas, we have launched a financial literacy programme to take formal banking services to the remote corners of India," HDFC Bank regional branch banking head Ravi Narayanan said.

The bank claims that it is the first financial institution to translate the financial literacy material into regional language (Gujarati).

"We have started handing over pre-printed deposit slips (containing names and numbers of account holders) so that they just need to fill the amount they want to deposit," Narayanan said.

As a part of the financial literacy programme, the bank, headquartered in Mumbai, had in March this year initiated training for branch heads.

The bank aims to spread this initiative across 500-700 villages of the state within a year, Narayanan said.

Highlighting that the purpose of this programme is to create financial awareness and educate the common man on money management and advantages of savings with banks, he said that through this initiative, the bank plans to spread its reach in unbanked sectors.

The RBI had in June imposed a fine of Rs 4.5 crore on HDFC Bank for violation of KYC norms and anti-money laundering guidelines after inquiring into charges levelled by a online portal Cobrapost.

When asked about steps taken against money-laundering charges, Narayanan said HDFC Bank has strong internal mechanism to curb such activities and all processes have been tightened.