Indian Bank to provide services to Pondy villages

Indian Bank will provide banking services under the national pilot project for financial inclusion (NPPFI), to 46 of the132 villages in Pondicherry. As a prelude, the bank has issued zero or minimum balance saving bank accounts to 1,551 villagers of Manglam.

According to a bank press release, financial inclusion would mean that the villagers can avail themselves of saving bank accounts with zero or minimum balance.

The bank also offers overdraft facility ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 at affordable interest rates and general credit cards with maximum permissible limit of Rs 25,000 per individual, besides insurance and other services.

In order to enable a larger section of rural people to access banking services, the RBI had recently urged banks to launch `No Frills' savings bank accounts.

It is expected that the branches of all the commercial banks in Pondicherry would roll out NPPFI before December 2006.