Access to bank accounts high, but usage pattern differs: Survey

While access to bank accounts has increased significantly in the country, gaps remain in financial inclusion, especially with regard to the usage of these accounts, a new study has revealed.

As many as 90% of individuals surveyed had a bank account and just 10% did not have one, a survey of 958 households and 2,862 adults across six villages by MicroSave Consulting revealed. Further, only 2% of individuals said they did not have a bank account due to limited access to banking points.

However, delving deeper into the usage of bank accounts, the study found that 86% of the individuals mentioned that they use their bank accounts at least once in 12 months while 14% of the accounts are inactive.

The study, titled “The six village story–India: An assessment of the real gap in financial inclusion”, also categorised the respondents into four groups based on the degree of usage of financial products and services. These were those with no bank accounts, those with low financial inclusion or individuals with inactive bank accounts, those with moderate financial inclusion or individuals who own active bank accounts but use only one service or product and, lastly, those with high financial inclusion or individuals who have active bank accounts and also use multiple financial services or products.

While 10% of the respondents had no bank account, 13% had low financial inclusion and 67% had moderate financial inclusion. Only 10% had high financial inclusion, it highlighted.

Female account owners (15%) have more inactive accounts than male account owners (12%), it further found. Individuals with lower education levels and limited or no income are less likely to have active accounts as 68% of individuals with inactive accounts have only attained primary education.

The linkage of bank accounts to Direct Benefit Transfers increases the usage of these accounts, the study found. 86% and 83% of individuals who opened their accounts for DBT and savings respectively, have used their accounts at least once in the past three months.

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