Darjeeling, March 26: All you need is a chip with your fingerprint and a hand-held swipe machine. No walks to the bank or paperwork needed. But money will be transferred on a real-time basis over V-Sat to your bank account. Welcome to the world of biometric banking.
The new-age banking is set to reach one of the most remote areas of the Darjeeling hills with the introduction of a pilot project of the Reserve Bank of India.
The first-of-its-kind initiative in the state will be launched on Monday with the distribution of biometric cards at Sumbuck village in Bijanbari block, 60km from Darjeeling town.
Currently, residents of Sumbuck have to walk nearly 12km to access a bank at Bijanbari. “Cards issued by the bank will carry the chip with biometric details of the account holder which in this case will be his/her finger prints. A business correspondent (BC) appointed by the bank will be provided with a hand-held swiping machine through which transactions like deposit and withdrawal of cash can be made at the village itself,” said Supriyo Sanyal, the assistant vice-president of Axis Bank, Darjeeling, which has tied up with the RBI for the project in Sumbuck.
A biometric card holder will first have to swipe his card and then make an impression of his fingerprint on the machine following which the account will be activated. “Once the account is activated, data will be transferred on a real time basis through a V-Sat to the Darjeeling bank. A card holder can make transactions up to Rs 5,000 on any given day,” said Sanyal. A BC could be anyone in the village, from a local grocer to a schoolteacher. “This way, the daily wage earner will not have to lose his earnings while visiting a distant bank,” said Sanyal.
Money can also be deposited in the account of a biometric card holder from anywhere in the country. “It is like opening a bank account in Darjeeling but all the facilities will be available at the village.”
The bank has not yet fixed the amount that the BC would be allowed to keep with him. “Certain issues like the maximum amount a BC can keep with him without depositing it in the Darjeeling branch is being worked out. Even if the BC runs out of funds because of more than the expected withdrawal, then we will see to it that cash is transferred to him,” said Sanyal.
The biometric card holder will not have cheque facility but unlike other savings account holders of Axis Bank, his will be a zero balance account.
The new banking will be introduced under the Financial Inclusion Model that has been launched to mark the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations (1935-2010) of the RBI. “The RBI is concerned that a vast majority of people do not have savings account or access to banking facility at a time when the country is talking about a double digit growth,” said Sanyal.
Of the 217 households in Sambuck, 70 individuals will receive the biometric cards during the first phase.
Source: The Telegraph
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