In a bid to capture the emerging rural banking opportunity, the country's largest commercial bank SBI is planning a nationwide roll-out of "SBI Tiny Cards," which currently is in the pilot stage in three states.
"Bank is carrying out pilots of the SBI Tiny Card in Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh before a large scale roll-out of the scheme," Bank chairman O P Bhatt said.
Biometric cards are the new buzz in the microfinance and rural sector as it uses fingerprint technology to authenticate customers thereby minimising the chances of fraud.
The cards are also being used as a means of payment of government benefits directly to the poor persons, such as pension payments and wages under the rural employment guarantee programme, he added.
SBI had recently announced plans to cover one lakh villages through the extensive network of business facilitators and business correspondents.
"Bank is already in an advanced stage of negotiations with India Post for using the post office network as business correspondents or business facilitator," Bhatt said.
The business correspondents would enable banking transactions through these "Tiny Card." The bank has also created a separate Rural and Agri Business Group for strategic initiatives in rural banking.