The services that will be rendered by the Bank Mitra BC:
The Work of The Bank Mitra BC is to enrol customers and enable the transactions of the customers at CSPs along with various other services like sourcing deposits and loan products for the various banks that are tied-up with Bank Mitra. The different technologies that can be adopted by the outlets of the BCs to undertake the BC activities include Card Technology, Cell phone messaging technology and Kiosk Banking Technology.
In the Card technology, there are two vendors that the BC entity can choose from them to undertake the BC activities. The Smart Card, which is a card with a chip or a Chip-less or some plastic card can be used for the purpose. The transactions of the customers can be either online or offline. With the use of Card technology, the BCs can enrol the interested customers and open a ‘No-Frills Account’ in two different forms, namely, Tiny Recurring Deposit accounts and Tiny Savings Bank to carry out the deposits and withdrawl activities. The customers can also open a savings bank account cum overdraft account which works just as the same as a savings bank account. When the customer uses the savings bank account for six months, he/she will be eligible for an overdraft also.
In the Kiosk banking technology, using the finger print capturing device and the internet connectivity is important. With this technology, the customer can open the No frills savings bank account easily.
Same way, for the cell phone messaging technology, any individual with a cell phone is eligible to open the No Frills account. But this technology is not available for the BCs already and may be available soon.
The BCs must be aware of certain things of the banks
Exclusivity: The CSPs of the customer service points which is an outlet of a BC, should not do any other business apart from the bank/financial institution that they are working for. Each bank prefers exclusivity in this regard.
BC Agreement: The BC when registered with Bank Mitra will get a copy of the BC agreement that he must go through and agree to the terms and conditions mentioned there.
Security deposit: Depending upon the rules of the banks, the BCs are required to keep a fixed security deposit amount that is the same as the fixed percentage of the expected business volumes of the year.
Cash Management for the BCs
For the transactions of the BCs, they would require opening a current account known as the settlement account and keep the account pre-funded. Whenever a customer comes to the BC outlet and deposits money into his account, the customer’s account will be credited while the BCs account will be debited. Similarly, when a customer withdraws cash from their accounts, his account will be debited and the BC’s account will be credited. Thus, there must be sufficient cash in the BC’s settlement account to carry out successful transactions of their customers.The BC’s office will also be subjected to audit and inspection by the bank officials or other statutory auditors.