Canara Bank has tied up with Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company for a micro-insurance product. This will be offered on the smart cards that it provides in its financial inclusion initiative. At a premium of Rs 100, the insurance will offer a cover of Rs 22,500.
“We plan to provide 10 different facilities for each smart card. Right now, facilities such as savings account, in-built overdraft account, remittance facilities, debit/credit through smart card and micro-insurance product are available with the smart card,” Ms Archana S. Bhargava, Executive Director, Canara Bank, told Business Line .
The bank is also working on providing a pension product, mutual fund product and access to trading account through the smart card in the next two years. It plans to enable remittance facilities through these cards soon, she said.
Financial inclusion
Canara Bank on Saturday sanctioned 1,000 self-help group loans, 1,000 general credit card loans, 1,000 differential rate of interest (DRI) loans, and 200 loans to joint-liability groups at an event at Devanahalli, near Bangalore. The bank disbursed Rs 15 crore in all to 15,000 members. Mr S. Raman, Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank, also declared open five ATMs, and rolled out seven farmers' clubs and the financial literacy and credit counselling centre of Bangalore Rural district.
Canara Bank has been allotted 92 villages under financial inclusion in the districts of Bangalore Rural, Ramanagaram, Tumkur, Kolar and Chikballapur.