SBI targets reaching 12,000 unbanked villages

Plan submitted to India's central bank under financial inclusion programme for the year.

State Bank of India (SBI) wants to extend its footprint to 11,943 unbanked villages, with a population of at least 2,000, this financial year. The country's largest lender recently submitted its plan to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

RBI had asked all Indian banks to submit their plans on financial inclusion, duly approved by their respective boards. The central bank also wanted to know the coverage plan for unbanked villages.

Out of 600,000 villages in the country, about 64,000 villages with a population of more than 2,000 are deprived of a formal banking channel. The proposed target for SBI shouldn’t be difficult as the bank has already extended banking facilities to 100,000 villages that were unbanked before.

View the full story in Business Standard.