Financial inclusion drive must target the poor: Subbarao

Former RBI Governor D Subbarao today emphasised the importance of financial inclusion of the poor.
He said financial institutions must learn how the poor plan their cash balance and then design a policy to smoothen their financial inclusion.
"He (Subbarao) emphasised the importance of financial inclusion of the poor. This is because for the poor people, access to credit, insurance and transfer of money from their place of work and to their home at low cost and quickly are important," a release from the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) here said about a lecture delivered by him.
"Financial institutions have to learn the sociological and psychological behaviour of poor people about their planning of cash balance to design policy to smoothen the financial inclusion," the release quoted him as saying.

Subbarao, who delivered the lecture on "Reserve Bank of India Making a difference to everyday lives", discussed several issues relating to the RBI's functioning, it said.
"He highlighted several important activities of the RBI such as printing and distributing currency, formulating monetary policy, regulating and supervising financial institutions and playing a pro-active role in financial inclusion of the poor," the release added.