Business Correspondent (BC) Model - A Bridge between Banks and Unbanked

This study investigates the achievements and difficulties of Business Correspondent (BC) models, which acts as a bridge between banks and unbanked, provides banking products and services to the unbanked population at doorstep. The study was conducted in Vellore and Katpadi village blocks of Vellore district, Tamil Nadu, with villages more than 2000 unbanked population. In the study area, eight nationalized bank branches were involved in appointing BC models and thirty villages were identified as unbanked; each village has one BC model. The achievements of BC models to transform unbanked to banked were found to be consistent in the study area. Technological glitches and settlement of transacted accounts on the same day were found to be major difficulties faced by the models in providing banking products and services to the unbanked. Keywords: achievements; Business Correspondent (BC) models; difficulties; unbanked; Vellore district