New Delhi: Riding on the government's digital drive, Bandhan Bank MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh today said his bank is making all-round efforts to educate micro credit customers to use mobile banking.
The Kolkata-based Bandhan, originally an MFI, became the first private bank to begin operations in a decade following grant of licences by RBI in June last year. "We are motivating our customers to move towards digital transactions.
We are educating and handholding micro credit borrowers to show them how to transfer funds using mobile phones," Ghosh told PTI. Bandhan Bank, which has 738 branches and 238 ATMs across the country, is banking on its depositor and creditor base as the MFI has already crossed a customer base of 96.67 lakh.
"We have taken a pilot project at a micro credit office so that 100 per cent of its customers can be brought into mobile banking net. Based on the success of this pilot, we will expand this to other micro credit offices.
We are explaining to the customers how school fees, electric and grocery bills can be paid through mobile banking," Ghosh said. The bank, Ghosh said, is also planning to introduce point of sales (PoS) devices for merchants, whose utility has gone up in the wake of cash crunch following demonetisation.
"In non-micro credit segment, we have seen transactions through mobile and Internet banking growing. We are venturing into merchant PoS device (space) so that funds can be transferred without hassle.
We plan to introduce up about 2,000-3,000 devices by March 2017," he said. Point of sales (PoS) devices are used for cashless transactions for making payments. They can also be used for dispensing cash.
The government has laid increased emphasis on promoting digital payments since the announcement of demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes on November 8.
