Banks to expand use of Electronic Payment System

Minister of State for Finance on Thursday said that Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) have decided to increase the number of ATMs with emphasis on rural and semi-urban areas.

This was decided for extending banking facilities to the large section of hitherto uncovered population.

The Government, with the objective of providing cost and time efficient mode of banking, has been taking a number of initiatives to promote electronic payment system, which inter-alia include getting interchange charges on ATM transaction reduced, advising Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to make National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) transactions upto Rs.1 lakh free of charge, issuing debit cards to all customers, etc.

Under the Financial Inclusion campaign ‘Swabhimaan', banking services have been extended to 74,194 villages with population of 2,000 and above, as per 2001 census.

Greater availability of ATM, Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, etc., is intended to benefit the people, including in the rural areas, to access banking services in a convenient and efficient manner.

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