With this, the bank is participating in the state government’s pilot project for smart card payment system (electronic benefit transfer) for National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and social security pension (SSP) beneficiaries covering Bellary, Chitradurga and Gulbarga districts. Under this project the beneficiaries will operate their SB accounts using smart card at remote locations through hand-held machines.
The beneficiaries of NREGA and SSP are being covered under the project through IT-enabled operations of their savings bank accounts. The financial transactions are through business correspondents’ services. The Bank has already engaged M/s Integra as the technology provider and M/s i-25 rural mobile commerce services, a section 25 company, as business correspondent, a bank press release here on Monday states.
The Bank plans to reach out to over 34,000 job cardholders of the NREGA/SSP beneficiaries through its branches in the three pilot districts. Under its financial inclusion plan, the Bank has drawn its roadmap to provide banking services in 78 un-banked villages across India, through business correspondent model using biometric smart cards, covering a population of over 2.50 lakh through its branches by March 31, 2012.