Union Bank of India, lead bank for Ernakulam district, has set up its first Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centre (FLCCC) at Perumbavoor.
FLCCCs, recommended by the High Power Committee headed by Usha Thorat on Lead Bank Scheme, are being set up in every district with the intention of providing financial counselling service through face-to-face interaction as well as through other available media like email, fax, mobile etc, educating people in rural and urban areas with regard to various financial products and services.
The FLCCC at Perumbavur is headed by a seasoned retired bank official and the public is free to approach the counsellor for services.
Financial literacy has been given a very high priority and the banking system has taken Financial Inclusion as a mission to be accomplished in a short period. At present, nearly 59 per cent of the population are without bank accounts.
In the first phase of Financial Inclusion, all villages having population in excess of 2,000 are being targeted to set up banking facilities. There are about 73,000 such villages in the country, including 120 villages in Kerala.
The task of making providing banking services either through a bank branch or through business correspondents (BCs) has been assigned to various banks. Most of these have appointed BCs and the process of issuance of smart cards to the new customers is on.
Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao has recently visited the FLCCC at Perumbavoor.