IDBI Bank opens 1,000 a/cs under fin inclusion plan in Mumbai

The state-run lender IDBI Bank has said under the financial inclusion initiatives it has opened 1,000 no-frills accounts in a south Mumbai colony, besides completing its target in four Bengal villages by opening 3,000 such accounts so far.

Under the financial inclusion initiative of the Central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's youngest bank has been assigned 118 villages spread across Maharashtra (78), MP (25), Chhattisgarh (6), Bengal (4), one in Daman and Diu besides four urban slums.

"We have so far opened 9,000 no-frills accounts under the financial inclusion initiative in two states. While we have opened 5,000 accounts in five Maharashtra villages, including 1,000 in Ambedkar Colony at Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai under the urban financial inclusion initiative, and 3,000 in four Bengal villages," IDBI Bank Chief General Manager (Personal Banking Group) Debasish Mallick told PTI.

He was talking at the sidelines of a seminar on banking organised by the leading city-based B-school Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

In the 2011 Budget speech, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had set a March 2012 deadline to bring the over 65,000 unbanked villages with 2,000 or above population under the banking services. Following this the government and RBI exclusively allocated these villages to all the banks according to their rural penetration.