Money
Everest Bank, Sakchyam join hands
Everest Bank and Sakchyam, an access to finance initiative by UKaid, on Thursday signed an agreement to establish 50 new branchless banking touch points (BLB) in 27 districts in the Western, Mid-western and Far-western Regions to ensure access to financial services for the rural poor communities.Everest Bank and Sakchyam, an access to finance initiative by UKaid, on Thursday signed an agreement to establish 50 new branchless banking touch points (BLB) in 27 districts in the Western, Mid-western and Far-western Regions to ensure access to financial services for the rural poor communities.
The BLB points will use Point of Sale machines (POS) to offer various banking services. In regions where access to financial services is poor and where it might not be viable for banks to open physical branch offices, BLBs have been seen to work well as alternative delivery channels for crucial financial services that help connect the populations to the formal financial sector, read a Sakchyam statement.
“Sakchyam’s technical assistance and Challenge Funding will support the bank in its mission to provide rural populations the type of financial services that can help kick-start local economies,” said Baljit Vohra, team leader of Sakchyam. “Our branchless banking initiatives are aligned with and will work to expedite recent government
policies regarding ‘One Citizen One Bank Account’ and the rollout of Government-to- Public (G2P) payments through banks.”
“This facility will cover
27 districts of the far, mid and western regions of the country. We have also introduced tablet banking as mode of branchless banking and expanded deprived sector lending and agriculture loans through this Project,” said Everest Chief Executive Officer AK Ahluwalia.