All rural branches of banks to impart financial literacy: RBI

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank Wednesday said all rural branches of banks will have to impart financial literacy.

This move comes after the central bank found Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centres (FLCC) were located in the urban and semi-urban areas.

"Banks may consider setting up need based FLCs in other locations as well. Financial literacy activities will also be undertaken by all the rural branches of Scheduled Commercial Banks including RRBs," the RBI said in its guidelines on Financial Literacy Centres (FLCs).

The RBI had come out with a model scheme for setting up of FLCCs in 2009 and after evaluating its efficacy and impact on the spread of Financial Literacy in the country, it has found that they were mostly located in urban and semi urban areas.

"All FLCCs are located in Urban and Semi Urban areas. No FLCC is functioning in the rural areas, where the largest sections of financially excluded population reside," the RBi said.

Besides, it has also asked banks to set up FLCs in each of the district manager offices.

"...Lead banks are advised to set up Financial Literacy Centers (FLCs) in each of the Lead District Manager (LDM) offices in a time bound manner. This will lead to opening of 630 plus FLCs in all the districts throughout the country," RBI said.

PTI