Balance in accounts opened under PMJDY in Gujarat exceeds Rs 550 cr

The highest amount so far has been aggregated by Bank of Baroda while the country's biggest nationalised lender State Bank of India is far behind

Balance in accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has exceeded Rs 550 crore in Gujarat by end of May 15, 2015, the latest data suggests.

The highest amount so far has been aggregated by Bank of Baroda (BOB) while the country's biggest nationalised lender State Bank of India (SBI) is far behind.

According to the data provided by the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) of Gujarat, balance in accounts opened under PMJDY has touched Rs 550.85 crore in the state. More than six million accounts have been opened in this scheme by May 15 this year.

Urban areas constitute majority of the account openings. Close to 3.20 million accounts have been opened under PMJDY in urban areas while in rural areas, 2.85 million accounts have opened.

PMJDY is a national mission on financial inclusion encompassing an integrated approach to bring comprehensive financial inclusion of households. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan on August 28, 2014. The plan envisages universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for households, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension facility.

Eighty-six per cent of the total accounts opened have been opened in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) while only three per cent of the total accounts have been opened in private banks.

PSB have 5.23 million account holders under the scheme while in private banks, there are 190,836 account holders. Regional rural banks (RRBs) have 639,765 account holders under the scheme.

Co-operative banks have opened just 515 accounts under PMJDY out of the total six million accounts.

The data suggests that among the PSU banks, Bank of Baroda leads the pack having collected a deposit of Rs 201.90 crore followed by Dena Bank, which has garnered Rs 92.37 crore. Country's largest PSU bank, State Bank of India has collected deposit of Rs 70.34 crore under the scheme.

Among the private sector lenders which have together aggregated about Rs 22.73 crores, HDFC Bank leads with collection of Rs 12.61 crore.

Collection of RRBs reached Rs 54.31 crore so far. Deposits in cooperative banks under the scheme are Rs 360,000.