Banks to be careful about Jan Dhan Yojana: RBI

P Vijaya Bhaskar, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India addresses on RBI perspective on the role banks can play in reviving industrial growth at Banking Colloquium in Kolkata on Friday. Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

PTI 19 Sep 2014

The Reserve Bank on Friday warned the banks to be more careful while opening accounts under the Jan-Dhan Yojana, saying that a single individual could open multiple accounts in the lure of Rs 1 lakh insurance cover.

“There are some caveats when the banks are implementing the financial inclusion scheme under the recently launched Jan-Dhan programme,” RBI Executive Director P Vijay Bhaskar said at a CII seminar in Kolkata on Friday.

He said people could open accounts in different banks using different identity documents like PAN card, Aadhar among others in the lure of getting insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh from all the banks.

The banks should have a single information sharing system by which this possible misuse could be stopped. Another possible threat was ‘smurfing’, the RBI official said.

In this case, hawala operators would spilt the whole amount into several small units beyond the threshold using several bank accounts and send money overseas.

The last was ‘money mules’ by which an individual would operate through another person’s bank account.

Talking about the north-eastern region, he said the SLBCs and the SLCCs should take steps to improve the credit-deposit ratio of the region as the CD ratio was much lower than the national average.

Earlier this week, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had cautioned banks on the risks involved in just hunting for numbers with regards to Jan Dhan scheme, asking them not to compromise on core objectives of the programme.

“When we roll out the scheme, we have to make sure it does not go off the track. The target is universality, not just speed and numbers,” Dr Rajan had said.

The scheme can be a “waste” if it leads to duplication of accounts, if no transaction happens on the new accounts and if the new users get bad experiences, he had added.

SBI takes lead in opening bank accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana

PTI | 11 Sep, 2014, 09.13PM IST 

State Bank of India has taken the lead in flagship Jan Dhan Yojana by opening over 30 lakh accounts so far, followed by Punjab National Bank. 

As of September 8, State Bank has opened about 21.16 lakh accounts in rural areas and 8.8 lakh accounts in urban areas, Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu said. 

Punjab National Bank(PNB) opened about 20.24 lakh accounts, Canara Bank with 16.21 lakh, Central Bank of India 15.98 lakh and Bank of Baroda 14.22 lakh accounts. 

However, major private sector banks taken together opened just 5.8 lakh accounts, much lower than even regional rural banks which have opened 49.28 lakh accounts. 

In terms of state-wise tally, Uttar Pradesh is the clear leader where 40.29 lakh accounts. It is followed by West Bengal with 21.62 lakh accounts. 

Yesterday, the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today took stock of the financial inclusion drive, Jan Dhan Yojana, under which banks have opened 3.02 crore accounts and mobilised about Rs 1,500 crore. 

As of September 8, 2014, 3.02 crore accounts have been opened, of which 1.89 crore are in rural areas and 1.13 crore are in urban areas, an official statement said today. 

Banks have collected deposits of Rs 1,496.51 crore under the scheme so far which works out to Rs 495 per account, it said. 

Prime Minister launched this ambitious scheme of financial inclusion on August 28. 

The benefit of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) can be extended to existing account holders without opening a new account. 

The government is giving adequate publicity to the benefit to be extended to account holders, sources added. 

The main features of the PMJDY scheme include Rs 5,000 overdraft facility for Aadhar-linked accounts, RuPay Debit Card with inbuilt Rs 1 lakh accident insurance cover. 

Besides, account holders under the scheme will get life insurance cover of Rs 30,000. This was additional benefit announced by the Prime Minister during the launch of the scheme. 

In order to spread financial inclusion, banks have been asked to open 7.5 crore accounts by January 26. PMJDY scheme envisages to provide one account to 15 crore unbanked households across the country in the first phase. 

For this, banks have been asked to set up camps from 8 AM to 8 PM on every Saturday to facilitate account opening. 

Two helplines-- 1800-180-111 and 1800-110-001 have been set up to answer queries related to the scheme. 

The Cabinet was also apprised that the Ministry has started survey of unabnked households and is expected to be completed by October 15, 2014.

Jan Dhan Yojana

India Today 28 Aug 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana across 76 centres across the country. On the occasion, he spoke to the nation from New Delhi's Vigyan Bhawan.

Here are 10 key highlights from his speech:

1 Earlier, the poor took loans from sahukars at interest rates eight times more than the bank. The burden of these loans drove them toward suicides. Now, the loan taker will be free from the vicious circle of high-interest loans.

2 Financial untouchability is a woe. But now, a poor man can go to a hotel and use his debit card to settle his bill, just like any other person.

3 Why wait till 2015 to launch this programme? The finance ministry has promised to complete the project by January 26, 2015.

4 Financial inclusion is the prerogative of the government. Through Jan Dhan Yojana, the poor man will have money on his hand and the government will be directly responsible for it.

5 Corruption will be negated with the direct deposit of welfare money into the poor man's account.

6 Saving is a virtue for Asian societies, where people like to save money rather than spend it. These bank accounts will strengthen this virtue.

7 On this occasion, let me recall a story from my life. Once, when I was  living in rural Gujarat, people from Dena Bank came to my village. Mr Vohra or someone with a similar name. He told us about the virtues of opening a bank account and saving money in piggy banks. I also opened an account, but my piggy bank never materialised. Then it happened that I left the village to go on my onward pursuits. But the bank people kept looking for me after I left. They wanted to meet me to have my account closed, because it had to carried over for renewal every year, and inactive account could be closed only with the owner's consent. Finally, they traced me to get my account closed and were freed of the burden. That was a time when we persevered to close an account. Today we are persevering to open bank accounts.

8 People opening accounts by January 26, 2015, will get insurance cover of up to Rs 1 lakh

9 Opening of bank accounts of 1.5 crore people is a big record in the banking history

10 I thank the people of the banking sector taking up this task, and promising this to be done by January 26, 2015.