Hindi, other regional languages can help people understand banking: Raghuram Rajan

Mumbai: Hindi and other Indian languages can act as a bridge for customers to understand banking and help them from being robbed of their money through ponzi schemes, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said on June 19.

"Recently there have been many incidents where poor people were robbed of their money through Ponzi schemes. Very often people lose their lifetime earnings through these schemes," he said.

"It is the responsibility of the government and the banking sector to provide banking facilities to those who have money, but have no access to formal banking channels in a language that they would understand," Rajan said.

He was speaking at a function here to present the Raj Bhasha shield for the year 2013-14 to award-winning banks.

There is a need to make arrangements for financial literacy in languages that people understand, he added.

"In these efforts, Hindi and other Indian languages can act as a bridge between the banker and the customer," Rajan said.

Deputy Governor S S Mundra said the banking interface is changing rapidly and it has moved from brick-and-mortar branches and computer banking to mobiles on June 29.

Efforts are being made to provide banking facilities through banking correspondents to cover more and more people. As the purview of banking expands, issues connected with it are also changing, he added.

"In this era of advance technology, issues of hacking pose a major threat. It is our responsibility to sensitise the customers about cyber security and care to be taken while using technology... I think, Hindi and other Indian languages will help us fulfil this responsibility," Mundra added.