Rajan asks banks to use Hindi to bridge gap with customers

He stressed on the importance of financial literacy at an RBI event

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan asked banks to use Hindi and other regional languages to bridge the gap between bankers and customers.

“It is the responsibility of the government and the banking sector to provide banking facilities to those who have money, but have no access to formal banking channels in a language that they would understand. We should also arrange for financial literacy in the language that they understand,” said Rajan while presenting the Rajbhasha Shield for the year 2013-14 awards to winning banks.

Rajan was referring to the recent incidents where poor people were robbed of their money through Ponzi schemes and very often people lost their lifetime earnings through these schemes.

The event was attended by chairmen and other senior executives of banks and financial institutions.

“In this era of advance technology, issues of hacking pose a major threat. It is our responsibility to sensitise the customers about cyber security and care to be taken while using technology. I think, Hindi and other Indian languages will help us to fulfill this responsibility,” said RBI deputy governor SS Mundra who was also present at the event.

In present era banking has moved from brick and mortar branches and computer banking to mobiles. Efforts are being made to provide banking facilities through banking correspondents to cover more and more people due to which it is believed that as the purview of banking expands, issues connected with it are also changing.