Note ban sees 30 lakh new bank accounts, SBI alone opened 11.8 lakh accounts

Demonetization is forcing banks to open savings accounts at a breakneck speed. It is estimated that banks have opened about 30 lakh (and still counting) new accounts since the demonetization drive began on November 8.

India's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), with its 17,097 branches -- half of which are in the rural and semi-urban areas – is opening 50,000 accounts a day. So far the bank has opened about 11.82 lakh accounts in the last two weeks.

Manju Agarwal, deputy managing director, SBI, told DNA Money, "We are opening nearly 50,000 accounts on a daily basis all across the country. There is no specific geography as the requests for new accounts are coming from all quarters. Our business correspondents played a critical role in opening new accounts in the remote villages. Financially excluded got included in this drive."

For most banks, it is the business correspondents in remote villages who opened the accounts for new customers, and hence the data is yet to be finalised.

Banks are now moving to factories, tea gardens, hospitals, tea shops and even housing societies to help people open accounts as the finance ministry steps up the pressure to open new saving bank accounts. Banks set up camps for two days last week to open accounts under the ministry's directives.

A senior bank officer said, "Many of these accounts may be opened only to launder money and may be open or remain active until this operation is complete. In many cases, there are people in the farm sector with money but no accounts. With exchange of the old currency notes coming to an end, except at the RBI counters, many people are forced to open accounts to save their money. " Meanwhile, Union Bank of India opened about 54,499 accounts in 1,452 camps they held last weekend from November26 to November 27. Since the demonetization began, the bank has opened about 1,42,000 new accounts. Arun Tiwary, chairman, Union Bank of India, said, "The number of savings accounts are rising with both people coming forward and banks reaching out to workers. Many of these camps were held in factories all over the country and small industrial establishments where people are bereft of accounts."

Even private sector banks are seeing a huge increase in the number of accounts. Rajiv Anand, group executive and head retail banking, Axis Bank, said, "The savings accounts have gone up by 50% over the previous month after the drive started. We have a large number of field staff who visit various industrial establishments and even housing societies to open accounts."
With the month coming to a close, many industrial establishments are finding it difficult to pay the salaries of their staff, specially the blue collared workers and migrant labourers who often do not have proper KYC documents like the resident proof or the other requisites to open an account.