Around 80% Jan Dhan accounts opened through business correspondents, says UCO Bank official

UCO Bank

Around 80 percent of Jan Dhan accounts in UCO Bank were opened through Business Correspondent (BC) channels, said Sanjay Kumar, Chief Manager, during an interaction with Moneycontrol.

Kumar said when a customer approaches the bank to open an account, the bank also provides them services for joining insurance schemes provided by the government like Prime Minister Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, PM Bima Suraksha Yojana as well as Atal Pension Yojana.

Kumar was speaking during a discussion on the 'Role of tech in financial inclusion' hosted at Moneycontrol on August 30.

Kumar said the national average balance in Jan Dhan accounts is Rs 4,100 per account but for UCO Bank it is Rs 4,500, which gives a very substantial CASA business to the bank.

Additionally, he said the bank is taking three important initiatives, the first is an electronic fraud risk management system for all the agency products, which tests the transactions.

Second, the bank has created a dashboard for BCs, through which day-to-day transactions and activities of BCs are monitored, he said.

Third, to create awareness among Jan Dhan beneficiaries, the bank is arranging Financial Literacy Camps every month at different places.

“Bank employees call the Jan Dhan and other beneficiaries to make them aware about the technology part and digital transactions, how and what type of precautions they have to take,” Kumar said.

He said the bank cannot rule out cyberattacks but such incidents are very, very minimal in UCO Bank.

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Jan Dhan accounts are basic savings bank accounts that are intended for first-time bank customers. The launch of these accounts in 2014 has significantly helped to expand banking services to far-flung areas of the country.

On August 28, 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a release said more than 50.09 crore accounts have been opened under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in the last nine years and the deposit balance swelled to over Rs 2.03 lakh crore.

The PMJDY was launched on August 28, 2014, to provide universal banking services through the opening of zero-balance bank accounts for every unbanked household, based on the guiding principles of banking the unbanked, securing the unsecured and funding the unfunded.

On the ninth anniversary of PMJDY, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “The nine years of PMJDY-led interventions and digital transformation have revolutionised financial inclusion in India. It is heartening to note that more than 50 crore people have been brought into the formal banking system through the opening of Jan Dhan accounts."

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In a similar discussion, Tapobrat Chaudhry, President & Business Head – Microfinance at Kotak Mahindra Bank, said that the bank is investing heavily in technology and putting efforts to ensure that its digital network can withstand cyberattacks such as phishing, and online frauds, among others.

“Any external attacks such as phishing are prevented or even if it happens it is immediately known and corrective steps are taken. So our bank is investing a lot in this technology. Our bank is putting a lot of effort in ensuring that its digital network infrastructure is all up to date,” Chaudhry said.

The Kotak Mahindra Bank official added that every stakeholder who is part of the whole ecosystem has to ensure that sufficient safeguards are built into their delivery of the product to ensure that online fraud, phishing, impersonation and cybersecurity breaches do not happen.