SBT completes coverage of 29 Kerala villages under FI plan

State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has fully covered the villages alloted to it under the finanacial inclusion project. The bank had been allotted 29 villages out of the 120 villages in Kerala with a population over 2,000 identified for the project.

SBT has opened a branch in Perumanna village of Kozhikode district and has covered the remaining 28 villages, through business correspondents (BC) based on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platform.

For this the bank has entered into an MoU with the state run Kudumbashree project and women members of the self-help groups under Kudumbashree are engaged to work as customer service providers in the villages.

 

In all the 28 villages so covered by the BC model, savings bank no-frills accounts have been opened and more than 3,500 smart cards issued.

The bank does not charge any fees for the services being offered to the card holders. The bank will be providing banking products like recurring deposits, overdraft facility for a maximum of Rs 10,000. In future, remittances, micro-insurance and utility payments would also be added.