In a big boost to Indian unbanked
prospective customers, State Bank of India has signed up Reliance Money
Infrastructure Ltd (RMIL) as one of its Business Correspondent.
RMIL is party of Anil Ambani
Group. The deal was signed on
25/02/2014, but is effective from a back-date i.e 05/10/2013.
As part of the deal RMIL on the
Assets side can:
- can identify borrowers;
- collect, process, and submit loan
applications;
- promote credit groups;
- take up post-sanction monitoring,
follow-up,
- and recovery.
Apart
from the above, RMIL as SBI’s service provider
- collect small-value deposits;
- sell micro-insurance, mutual fund and
pension products; and
- Receive and deliver small-value
remittances.
At
present, the agreement covers the following products:
- no-frill savings bank accounts through
kiosk banking model;
- home loans/loans against property;
- auto loans; gold loans;
- SME loans;
- general purpose credit card;
- kisan credit card;
- current account;
- savings bank account (other than
no-frill account);
- term deposit;
- recurring deposit;
The
above products will be on a referral mode. Additional products may be added by mutual
consent. Products may be also amended from time to time.
The agreement binds RMIL to the Fair
Practices Code for lending as also its own code for collection of dues. In the absence of such a code, it should abide
by the Indian Banks’ Association code for collection of dues and repossession
of security.
The agreement clearly specifies that it is
essential that the service provider refrains from action that could damage the
integrity and reputation of the bank.
RMIL or its employees should not
resort to intimidation or harassment of any kind, either verbal or physical,
against any person in debt collection efforts, including making threatening or
anonymous calls or making false and misleading representations.
As on date there are no specific
certifications to be obtained by Business Correspondents employees. The
employees engaged in Recovery Process should have undergone 100 hours mandatory
training for the certificate course for DSA/DMA/Recovery Agents conducted by IIBF
accredited institutions.
As on date the details of this
tie-up are yet to be mentioned on SBI website or Reliance Money website.
As per the RBI guidelines, the
following entities are eligible for appointment of Business Correspondents (BCs) for banks:
- NGOs/ MFIs set up under Societies/
Trust Acts,
- societies registered under Mutually
Aided Cooperative Societies Acts or the
- Cooperative Societies Acts of States,
- Section 25 companies that are stand
alone entities or in which NBFCs, banks, telecom companies and other
corporate entities or their holding companies did not have equity holdings
in excess of 10 per cent,
- post offices ,
- retired bank employees,
- ex-servicemen ,
- retired government employees.
- Individual kirana/medical/fair price
shop owners
- Individual Public Call Office (PCO)
operators
- Agents of Small Savings Schemes of
Government of India/Insurance Companies
- Individuals who own petrol pumps
- Retired teachers
- Authorised functionaries of well run
Self Help Groups (SHGs) linked to banks
- Non deposit taking NBFCs (non-banking
finance companies) in the nature of loan companies whose micro finance
portfolio is not less than 80 per cent of their loan outstanding in the
financially excluded districts as identified by the Committee on Financial
Inclusion
Scope
of Activities to be undertaken by BCs
The
scope of activities undertaken by BCs are as under :
- Creating awareness about savings and
other products and education and advice on managing money and debt
counseling.
- Identification of potential customers
- Collection and preliminary processing
of various forms for deposits including verification of primary
information / data
- Filling of applications / account
opening forms including nomination clause and submission to the Bank.
- KYC will also be completed by the BCs.
- Opening of no frill deposit accounts
and other products as permitted from time to time by leveraging
technology.
- Collection and payment of small value
deposits and withdrawals; Min : nil; Max : as decided from time to time, per
transaction.
- Receipt and delivery of small value
remittances / other payment instruments.
- In respect of all such transactions,
the BC/his agent will be authorized to accept / deliver cash either at his
place of work or at any convenient location subject to the ceilings per
customer as decided from time to
time.
- Furnishing of mini account statements
and other account information, for a period of 3 months.
- Any other service on behalf of the
Bank, duly authorized by the appropriate authority.
- In respect of all such transactions,
the BC/his/her agent will be authorized to accept / deliver cash either at
his place of work or at any convenient location subject to the ceilings
per day / per customer as laid down.
- The Business Correspondents will be
linked to a nearby branch (base Branch).
- Cross-selling of other financial
products like insurance / mutual fund products / pension products / any
other third party product, as and when they are assigned to do so.
- In case duly appointed sub-agents of
BCs, BCs to take care of reputational risks involved in such appointments.
