RBI /2009-10/432
DBOD.No.BL.BC. 99/22.01.009/2009-2010
April 26, 2010
Vaishakha 6, 1932 (S)
All Commercial banks (including RRBs and Local Area Banks)
Dear Sir/Madam
Financial Inclusion by Extension of Banking Services –
Use of Business Correspondents (BCs)
A reference is invited to paragraph 79 of the Annual Policy Statement for the
year 2010-11(extracts enclosed as Annex) regarding the proposed relaxation in
the guidelines relating to Business Correspondent model.
- As per the extant guidelines on the Business Correspondent (BC) model, only
certain select categories of individuals are permitted to be engaged as BCs. In
terms of circular DBOD.No.BL.BC.74/22.01.009/2007-08 dated April 24, 2008, banks
have been permitted to engage retired bank employees, ex-servicemen and retired
government employees as BCs. Further, in terms of circular
DBOD.No.BL.BC.63/22.01.009/2009-10 dated November 30, 2009, banks have been
permitted to engage the following entities as BCs: (i) Individual kirana/medical/fair
price shop owners (ii) Individual Public Call Office(PCO) operators (iii) Agents
of Small Savings Schemes of Government of India/Insurance Companies (iv)
Individuals who own Petrol Pumps (v) Retired teachers and (vi) Authorised
functionaries of well run Self Help Groups(SHGs) linked to banks.
- On a review and with a view to providing more flexibility to banks, it has
been decided to permit banks to engage any individual, including those operating
Common Service Centres (CSCs) as BC, subject to banks’ comfort level and their
carrying out suitable due diligence as also instituting additional safeguards as
may be considered appropriate to minimise the agency risks.
- All other terms and conditions in our circular
DBOD.No.BL.BC.63/22.01.009/2009-10 dated November 30, 2009, will remain
unchanged.
Yours faithfully,
(P. Vijaya Bhaskar)
Chief General Manager-in-charge
Encl: as stated above
Extracts from the Annual Policy Statement for the year 2010-2011
Business Correspondents: Relaxations
79. Under the extant guidelines on the Business Correspondent (BC) model, only
certain select categories of individuals are permitted to be engaged as BCs.
With a view to providing more flexibility to banks, it is proposed:
* to permit banks to engage any individual, including those operating Common
Service Centres (CSCs), as BC, subject to banks’ comfort level and their
carrying out suitable due diligence.