Now, you can open bank accounts at any of your nearest Kirana Shops, Petrol Bunks, PCO nearer to you. RBI gave the permissions to the banks to use these entities as their agents. You can even deposit or withdraw amount at any of these places. But all these operations come for a nominal fee, pre-decided by the banks.

Individual kirana shops, medical shops, petrol pumps, PCO operators, agents of government sponsored small savings schemes, Insurance agents and retired teachers are the allowed agents for the banks. These agents will be called as BCs(Agents in Common parlance).

These BCs are choosed by the RBI based on their experience in handling the cash inflow and outflow as part of their activities. “For streamlining cash management, banks may consider adopting ‘cash routes’ linking various BCs which are in close proximity to each other to a base branch, wherever warranted with suitable cash transit insurance,” RBI said. Only banks has the permissions to charge for these services. BCs don’t have permission to charge from the customers.

This is the first step taken by the RBI to improve the banking services in rural areas.

Thanks to RBI for making the banking services such an easy. Happy Banking.