Atal Pension: Banks can enroll through saving bank a/c details

Banks can now enroll prospective subscribers of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) by fetching their saving bank account details, making the process faster and hassle-free.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) has been taking all necessary steps to ensure that people can join APY in an easy manner.
The move is aimed at expanding the outreach of entire eligible population of the country through the APY module which is integrated with bank's core banking system (CBS), the PFRDA said today.
"The banks have to simply enter the savings bank account number of the prospective subscriber and the APY module automatically fetches the required details from the banks master data base and the subscriber is allotted Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) immediately," the pension fund regulator said in a release.

Having generated the PRAN, a subscriber of APY can make contributions on a monthly/quarterly/half yearly basis without any hassle as the amount is deducted towards APY account by debiting from saving bank accounts directly.
Under APY, all Indian citizens in the age group of 18-40 years can join the scheme. So far 31.85 lakh subscribers have registered under the scheme, the PFRDA said.

It guarantees a retirement pension of Rs 1,000-5,000 per month, depending upon the contribution made by the subscriber.
Additionally, PFRDA already facilitates the internet savvy people as they can join APY through their Internet banking.
Leading banks in the country like SBI and ICICI are already offering this facility through net banking. Many other banks have also expressed interest to provide this facility to their customers, the regulator said.

"With a view to simplify enrollment in APY, an internet based APY subscriber registration mode has been allowed for those applicants who have net-banking accounts. Banks can enroll such applicants in APY through their net banking platforms by capturing the information on the online application form," the PFRDA added.
No physical form is required to be submitted to the bank by the customer, it said.