FM Nirmala Sitharaman launches Doorstep Banking Services

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched Doorstep Banking Services by Public Sector Banks (PSBs) on September 9, 2020. The services aim to provide customers with the convenience of banking services at their doorsteps.

The Union Ministry of Finance issued an official statement saying that as a part of EASE Reforms, Doorstep Banking Services is envisaged to provide the convenience of banking services to the customers at their doorstep through the universal touchpoints of call centre, web Portal or mobile App.

The customers will also be able to track their service requests through these mediums. 

Significance

The Doorstep Banking Services will benefit all customers, especially senior citizens and people with disabilities who will now find it easy to avail these services. The services aim to improve access to hassle-free and convenient banking.

Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman launched PSBs #DoorstepBanking Services! Improved access for hassle-free and convenient Banking. A citizen friendly initiative!

FM also declared EASE 2.0 Index results.#EASE #DoorstepBanking #PSBReforms pic.twitter.com/DE1W1AhqIP

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) September 9, 2020

Doorstep Banking Services: Key Highlights 

• Doorstep Banking Services will help in providing convenience to bank customers.

• The services can be rendered by doorstep banking agents deployed by the selected Service providers at 100 centres across the country.

• The customers of Public Sector Banks will be able to avail the services at nominal charges.

• Currently, only non-financial services such as picking up of cheques, demand draft or pay order are available to customers.

• Complete financial services of the PSBs will be made available at the doorstep of the customers from October 2020. 

Public Sector Banks

• The Public Sector Banks have shown a healthy trajectory in their performance over four quarters since the launch of EASE 2.0 Reforms Agenda. 

• The overall EASE index score of PSBs increased by 37 percent between March 2019 and March-2020, with the average score improving from 49.2 to 67.4 out of 100.

• Besides this, significant progress has been noted across six themes of the Reforms Agenda with the highest improvement being seen in the themes of Responsible Banking, PSBs as Udyamimitra for MSMEs, Governance and HR and Credit off-take.

Background

Most customers of Public Sector Banks can now access at least 35+ banking services including intra-bank transfer, NEFT, IMPS, RTGS, accounts statement and cheque book request on mobile or internet banking and 23 services such as the issuance of cheque book, cheque status, issuance of form 16A, block/activate the debit card through call centres.

Overall, the availability of doorstep banking services has nearly doubled over the last 24 months. There are almost 4 crore active customers on mobile and internet banking with 140 percent increase in financial transactions through mobile and internet banking channels and almost 50 percent of financial transactions through digital channels in the nation. 

The Reserve Bank of India has prescribed doorstep banking services a few years ago and the public sector banks had decided to appoint a common service provider to handle this for all their customers. Initially, the doorstep banking facility was thought to be made available to senior citizens and the disabled, who find it difficult to visit the bank branches.

During COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, RBI notified that all those falling under the vulnerable age group ( senior citizens above the age of 70 years) and the differently-abled can avail doorstep banking services across India.