Crisil to develop index for financial inclusion

Rating agency Crisil is developing an index for financial inclusion, which will look into operational nature of "no-frills accounts". Mr.R. Gopalan, Secretary, Financial Services, MOF addressing a press conference at Chennai, after assessing the financial inclusion plans of South based- banks, said that Crisil would develop various indices, including the percentage of these accounts that are operational. The Crisil Index, a neutral index will be applied to evaluate public sector banks performance on financial inclusion. When asked about number of active "no-frills account", Mr. Gopalan said that the operational efficiency of these accounts vary from Bank to Bank. Corporation Bank has an operational efficiency close to 60% while other banks are much less but they are beefing up their technology to improve efficiency. Facilities to be provided for "no-frills account" will be deposits, withdrawals, remittances, account queries, in the next phase loan products micro insurance and micro pension will be offered.(BL 15.10.2010)