As part of the financial inclusion drive in the state, the Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB), a regional rural bank sponsored by State Bank of India, has opened 100 ultra small branches (USBs) in the state on January 2 as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) guidelines.
The USBs are being operated by the business correspondent agents (BCAs) by leveraging biometric technology with the help of a hand held mobile devices to cater to the banking services to implement the Financial Inclusion Plan (FIP) in the small villages having population of 2,000 & above, the bank said in a press release.
The USBs function on all the working days of the bank and timings suitable for the villagers and agriculturists.
"More than 89,000 accounts have already been opened in these USBs. The bank is planning to open another 60,000 accounts by March 2013," it said.
The bank has taken several initiatives to educate the rural poor to access the banking facilities by organising financial literacy awareness camps in the villages with Rs 25 lakh grant assistance from Nabard.
APGVB has plans to convert these USBs into 'Brick and Mortar' branches after people started utilising the banking services on a large scale. It is eyeing to convert around 50% of the USBs into full-fledged branches within 6 months depending upon the performance, the release said.