Role of ICT, BC and BF in Financial Inclusion

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) includes a wide variety of technologies in many areas, including business, education, and economic growth. ICT can also be used in health, tourism, agriculture, culture, banking, and entrepreneurship. ICT can help improve the quality of teaching and learning, and make education more accessible and equitable. It can also help teachers develop professionally and make education management more efficient. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supports the inclusion in the education of children with disabilities by enabling them to overcome some of the barriers causing their exclusion.

ICT has improved the efficiency of banking not only by strengthening the back-end administrative processes but also front-end operations. ICT enables banks to offer better customer service through the spread and use of ATMs, Internet banking, phone banking, and 24/7 services, plus the ability to offer an expanded portfolio of products and services. It thus resulted in low transaction costs for customers which has been the major focus of the ICT for financial inclusion.

To achieve higher financial inclusion in the country, a committee on Financial Inclusion, with Dr. C. Rangarajan as Chairman, was constituted by the Government of India in June 2006 to increase the outreach of the banks for greater financial inclusion. The committee recommended the banks use the services of intermediaries such as Business Facilitators (BFs) and Business Correspondents (BCs) for providing financial and banking services to people in rural and unbanked areas.

Banks particularly public sector banks enable themselves to expand their outreach and offer a limited range of banking services at low cost at locations other than where there is a bank branch/ ATM, banks engage retail agents. These retail agents are Business Correspondents (BC) who represent the concerned bank and offer financial services. These BCA’s are connected to the bank by CBS and the transactions are done in such a way that on swiping the smart card on the smart card on machine the account details of the customer are retrieved and then once the amount to be transacted is entered the transaction is authenticated by biometric system present in the machine, which scans the customer’s thumbprint since most of the customers are illiterate, there is a voice system present in the machine which announces the transaction details to the customer in the local language, hence this so designed to ensure that customer is not cheated. Banks use mobile phones/ tablets to open Small Accounts/ Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts in unbanked villages and offer banking services through Points of Sale (POS) instruments handled by agents of Banking Correspondents (BCs). BC’s have also brought down the transaction costs which have also been one of the major objectives of financial inclusion. The Business Correspondent (BC) model introduced by banks for financial inclusion would not have been possible without ICT.

A business facilitator (BF) in banking, also known as a Bank Mitra, is a bank representative who helps a bank generate business and spread awareness about its products. BFs spread awareness about banking and the bank’s products and help banks generate business by introducing banking products to unbanked and under-banked segments. This includes mobilizing various accounts such as Savings, Current, Recurring, and Fixed Deposits, as well as facilitating loans. They also help banks collect receivables, including bad debt. However, BFs are not allowed to conduct cash transactions. Read:

USE OF MOBILES/TABLETS IN FINANCIAL INCLUSION DRIVE

ICT improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the facilities and services provided by the banks. Secure maintenance of customer and company files is vital to the company’s integrity. The information technology advantage comes from the ability to store unlimited amounts of information in compliance with regulations securely. Information collected through ICT from BF is protected from unauthorised access.

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