Private sector banks are clearly unable to keep up with public sector banks when it comes to the race to open bank accounts for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Public sector banks are shining on this front, having opened 6.01 crore accounts out of the 7.46 crore PMJDY accounts opened till mid-November. Major private sector banks have managed to open only 0.2 crore accounts, data available with the Finance Ministry showed.
The other category that has put up a good show are regional rural banks. They have opened 1.25 crore accounts till date. But the main cause of concern still remains: nearly 75 per cent of PMJDY accounts or 4.50 crore out of the 6.01 crore accounts opened by public sector banks have zero balance. In the case of major private banks, the number of accounts with zero balance stood at 0.14 crore. For RRBs, the number of zero balance accounts stood at 0.98.
Till mid-November, the number of RuPay cards issued stood at 4.22 crore. As many as 3.24 crore cards are yet to be issued.
State Bank of India leads with over one crore accounts. Eight banks opened 30 lakh to one crore accounts each. These include, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank and United Bank. While 11 banks each opened between 10 lakh-30 lakh accounts, 14 banks opened less than five lakh accounts and six banks opened 5-10 lakh accounts.