Pvt banks turn to biz correspondents to grow rural reach

PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS are increasingly turning towards business correspondents or BCs for growing their business in rural and semiurban areas, according to senior officials.

- PIYUSH SHUKLA

BCs are cost-effective for lenders, can now perform a host of banking services, and enable lastmile reach, which is mandated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

"We are looking at BCs as a subsidiary. Around 951 branches (BCs) are there from the subsidiary, of which we identified around 800 where there's a possibility of raising term deposit or savings account with a fair amount of balance," RBL Bank MD and CEO R Subramaniakumar said.