Canara Bank :: Priority Credit Section

Financial Inclusion And Micro-finance Initiatives:

Bank has taken up Financial Inclusion in a multi - pronged approach under which the bank has initiated the following steps.

Brought 1639 villages across the country under Total Financial inclusion under one village under one Rural/Semi urban branch- programme.
Opened 2.33 lakhs no frill Accounts during the current financial year.
Covered 24.13 lakhs persons under Financial inclusion
Achieved Total Financial inclusion in all Twenty six lead districts, spread over five states, namely Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Bank is the SLBC convener of Kerala State. The State has been declared as Total Financially included on 24.12.2007.
Bank has issued 2.22 lakhs General Credit Cards since inception.
Bank has so far formed 3.34 lakhs SHGs and credit linked 2.83 lakh SHGs since inception.
Bank has so far formed 1231 farmers clubs.
Bank has started financial Literacy and Credit Counseling Centres (FLCCs) in 10 districts. Lead Districts, namely Chitradurga, Kolar and Chikkaballapura in Karnatak state, Erode, Madurai, Dindigul in Tamil Nadu, Malappuram, Plakkad, Trissur in Kerala and Sheikpura in Bihar state.
Bank has brought out two comic books in Kannada and English, namely "Money" and "Savings" for financial education of the people.
Bank has provided 35 vehicles in 35 potential districts to facilitate the branches to reach the rural poor and the excluded families by using the vehicle. The vehicle is called 'Canara Gramina Vikas Vahini'
Bank has also devised various products for financial inclusion, namely:

OTHER INITIATIVES :

Bank has adopted the Business Facilitator Model and Business Correspondent Model for extending the services in rural areas and deepening of financial inclusion in the unbanked areas.
Bank has taken up Smart card implementation in 500 locations across the country for financial inclusion.
Bank has a MOU with Government of Karnataka for implementation of Smart Card Technology for payment of NREGP Wages and Social Security Pension in three districts namely, Bellary, Gulbarga and Chitradurga.
Bank has installed Bio Metric Voice enabled ATM in sixteen semi urban locations all over the country.
Bank has also launched Bio metric, Voice enabled Mobile ATM in Bangalore, in which even the illiterate customers and the Smart Card holders can withdraw money from their accounts.
Canara Bank Training Institute for Micro finance, Sonnahallipura, was set up in 1993, is a unique institute . It is engaged in training SHGs and promoting the micro finance concept. The institute has so are trained 11840 candidates.
Bank has opened 19 micro finance branches in urban centres, namely Madurai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Amritsar,Chandigarh, Lucknow,Coimbatore, Bangalore and Chennai, Bhopal, Bhuvaneswar, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkatta, Patna, Pune, Shimoga, Trivandrum,, Visakapatnam.
Bank's Financial Inclusion Plan (FIP) and the list of villages taken up for providing banking services are displayed separately.