Business correspondent as an extended arm of banks needs to be strengthened

By Consultants Review Team Thursday, 06 April 2023

theThe Business Correspondent (BC) has played a significant role in driving financial inclusion to the last mile in India be it through Jan Dhan Yojana, Benefit Schemes/Payments or Covid-19 cash relief. According to a report, there is a need to significantly expand the scope of digital financial services and address key challenges to make the industry self-reliant, more efficient, effective and impactful.

Grameen Foundation India (GFI) and the Business Correspondent Federation of India (BCFI) have jointly released a report, "Reimagining the Next-generation BC Model". The roundtable helped show the path toward the next-generation BC model. It provided a dynamic platform for industry experts to come together and co-create a strategy to build this model as they discussed the issues threadbare.

The experts' recommendations include ideas on regulatory reforms, improved visibility of BCs, marketing strategies, increased gender sensitivity, and making BCs one-stop points for financial services. The report also recommends the capacity building of all stakeholders, making the BC industry more investor-friendly, creating an open common knowledge-sharing platform, transitioning from demand fulfillment to demand generation, and providing training content in vernacular languages.

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