SBI Explores Options Of Installing Iris Scanner At Bank Mitra Channel

SBI took actions after the video of 70-year-old woman walking barefoot for miles to collect her pension has gone viral on the Internet. FM Nirmala Sitharaman posted the video and urged the bank to take appropirate measures.

New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said it is exploring options for installing an iris scanner at Banking Correspondent or Customer Service Point to address the challenges faced by senior pensioners or customers. This will save senior citizens from going to branches and withdrawing pensions at their nearest Bank Mitra channel.

"Bank has also been examining options of installing Iris scanners at our BC/CSP (Bank Mitra) channels to address the challenges faced by our Senior Pensioners/ Customers," SBI said in a statement. SBI has always aligned its business goals with national priorities, and focused attention is given to a range of financial inclusion activities, it said.

However, it said, an unfortunate incident has recently come to light where one of the senior citizen customers faced difficulty in withdrawing her old age pension from the nearby CSP (Bank Mitra) in Jharigaon block of Nabrangpur district of Odisha on account of her fading fingerprints not being recognised by the biometric reader at the CSP (Bank Mitra). As per the laid down protocols, the nearest link branch, SBI Jharigaon, immediately paid the pension amount by debiting the amount manually from the pensioner's account, it added. She has also been reassured by the branch manager of the delivery of pension at her doorstep going forward, it noted.

As a goodwill gesture, the statement said, SBI has donated a wheelchair to the pensioner to facilitate her movement. "While necessary protocols are already in place to address such situations, SBI has taken further cognizance of the matter and has initiated reiteration of the guidelines to all our BCs/CSPs (Bank Mitra) to contact their link branches in case of any issues faced by them in serving our customers," it said.