Private sector lender ICICI Bank has announced the launch of its third ‘branch on wheels’ in Odisha as part of its financial inclusion plan aimed at providing banking services in villages.
The ‘branch on wheels’ is a mobile branch and has an ATM. It offers a range of products and services such as savings accounts, loans, cash deposit/withdrawal, account balance enquiries, statement printing and funds transfer/DD/PO collection, among others, the bank said in a statement.
It will be operated on a van and stationed at specific times in pre-identified, unbanked villages. It is equipped with a GPS tracking system, laptops with 3G connections, LED TV, a safe, a printer, public announcement system, a UV Lamp that detects forged cheques, a note counting-cum-authentication machine that identifies fake currency notes and a unique, low-weight ATM.
Two ICICI Bank officials and a guard will manage the mobile branch and the nearest branch of the bank will serve as the parent branch, routing all the cash and transactions for it.
The bank opened its ‘Branch on wheels’ in Maharashtra in September last year and in Chhattisgarh earlier this month. It has opened nearly 800 rural branches, including 440 in the hitherto unbanked areas.